The Forgotten
by The Forgetful Authoress
Summary: Welcome to the Smash Kingdom! A place where you can kick back, relax or have a friendly battle to the death with other fighters! You have a ton to choose from, Marth, Mario, Sonic, Shulk, Soild Snake, Pichu- wait a second, Pichu isn't in Smash Four! And neither is Snake the Box Solider! What are they doing here!
1. Chapter 1, A Peaceful Afternoon

Chapter One, The Usual.

A simple day in the Smash Kingdom, where everyone fights each other for fun, to prove that they are awesome or just for training in case of a major enemy. But for now, it was battle time for Pit and Dark Pit V.S. Villager and Duck Hunt.

Link, Mario, Sonic, Luigi and Zelda were watching at the character screen, which showed the owners of the game their pictures and select screen but for the fighters, a nice little café with random greenery and a huge baseball stadium sized TV place right above a gaping doorway, which lead the chosen fighters to their stage and arena.

"Alright! Go for the gold Pit!" Sonic cheered, Zelda winched as the Villager planted a tree and sent Dark Pit flying out of the ring the moment they were allowed to move, "Mama mia!" Luigi exclaimed, "Who knew trees could be so dangerous!" Link chuckled and took a bite out of his sandwich, "Apparently, not Dark Pit."

They watched as Dark Pit was brought back in, growling slightly as the Villager happily taunted knowing full well that Dark Pit was going to kill her when he got the chance, Duck Hunt wasn't making their battle go any easier since he would stick by the Villager who planted tree and used them as shields against most of the Pits' attacks.

"For crying out loud! Stop hiding behind trees!" Dark Pit roared, Pit laughed nervously as he charged forward hitting the Villager and sending her off the edge, "Lighten up Pittoo!" Dark Pit glared at him and snarled, "How many times have I told you not to call me that?!"

"About a million," Pit blocked and began slashing at Duck Hunt who yelped and tried to get away, "But it isn't that bad! We have an extra life we can win this."

Dark Pit was about to argue that they were going to lose when Villager fired a Gyroid combined with a potted tree. "I. Hate. TREES!" Dark Pit fought back while the Villager danced away laughing the entire time. Pit and Duck Hunt watched and sighed knowing that after the fight that they were on damage control to prevent Dark Pit from murdering the droopy eyed female Villager.

The fight ended with the Villager being the winner while Duck Hunt happily cheered from the sidelines, Dark Pit sulky clapped while Pit simply grinned and stepped out of the stage room, "Nice battle Pit!" Zelda smiled at him while Link nodded in agreement and said, "Although I suppose it could have been better if Treeleaf wasn't spamming her tree attack."

"Oh, ya think!?" Dark Pit stormed out of the Stage selection with Treeleaf, the droopy eyed village wearing the green and white dress and Duck Hunt lazily trailing behind them.

"It wasn't that bad." Treeleaf yawned, Dark Pit spun around prepared to bite her head off when Pit lead him toward the café counter to order something for lunch.

"You could have cut him some slack Treeleaf." Mario said, Treeleaf gave a surprised expression and did her worry dance, "But then I wouldn't be fighting Mario!" Her expression changed once more as she did her plotting face, "Besides, he's fun to mess with!"

Mario and Link gave her a scolding glare as she skipped off to chat with the rest of the villagers, there were four boys and four girls, all of them sharing the same move set.

All of them loved to use their tree attacks to troll whoever they were fighting. Then again, the Villagers never seemed to take the fight as serious as everyone else did. Probably because they grew up in such a laidback area.

Sonic jumped up and stretched, "Wonder who's fighting next? Hope it's me!" Luigi nervously laughed, "You always hope it's you." Sonic grinned down at the green plumber, "So? What's the fun of sitting around?"

"Oh, I don't know, talking with friends, relaxing not having to worry about Gannondorf's evil plans for a while." Zelda glanced over to Sonic with a bored look that hid her beautiful smile, "That kind of fun." Everyone laughed and Sonic sped off, probably to challenge Shulk to a race since his sword, the Monado had some sort of speed stat that nearly made him as fast as Sonic.

Everyone was sort of surprise that Shulk didn't deny Sonic's countless requests for racing but then again, Shulk was probably trying to figure out how the blue rodent managed to run that fast without hurting himself.

"Well, whatever." Zelda got up and stretched, "I'm going to see if I can talk some sense into Peach." Mario and Luigi groaned, "Do you have to?" Zelda crossed her arms preparing to launch into a lecture but Luigi quickly backed down, leaving his brother on his own. "I understand how things work in your world, but still. Having tea parties with the enemy? It's unacceptable!"

"Yes but-," Zelda cut Mario off with sharp, "But nothing! As a fellow princess I have to talk some sense to her! It's either that or explain the real reason why she needs better guards!" Mario gulped and backed down, not in the mood to face an angry Peach since the last time Zelda had brought that topic up, she went complaining to Mario who didn't understand anything about royalty.

Zelda gracefully headed over to the dense woods were Peach was, leaving the boys alone. Link stood up and studied his Master Sword, "Well, whatever the next fight is, I plan on taking a nap." Luigi opened his mouth to say something when a quiet voice interjected, "Marth wishes to see you Link." Everyone jumped and spun around to see Sheik awkwardly looking at them, he or she was fiddling with her scarf that head most of their face.

"How long have you been there?!" Luigi demanded, embarrassed that he had jumped into Mario's arms for safety, Sheik quietly replied, "Ever since the Pits' battle begun." Mario dropped Luigi on the floor and crossed his arms, "And you didn't tell us this earlier why…?"

Sheik looked away, Link didn't understand why Mario asked the question since everyone had noticed that Zelda and Sheik were almost never in the same room unless they were fighting, Link understood why. Before Zelda and Sheik were one for two whole tournaments now they were two different people.

Zelda remembered everything from Link's adventure as a wolf and bits and pieces of the last two tournaments while Shiek… No one knew what Sheik remembered since she never chatted with anyone but Samus and she always seemed to know what they were talking about.

Plus the awkwardness of feeling like you once knew that person but didn't know why bothered them both to the point that Sheik preferred to sneak around rather than face Zelda and hold a conversation.

At least it was better than Zero's reaction to being spilt into two different people, Zero was well, Zero Suit Samus and finding out that her suit worked perfectly fine without her in it drove her a little paranoid since she had lost her suit once and an alien had taken it over with a robot. No one knew the real story since Samus never liked to talk about it.

They made extra measures to make sure that Samus and Zero never bumped into each other and start fighting.

"So what does Marth wants?" Link asked,

"He needs your help convincing Roy that there still friends. They have a team battle in a couple minutes in a while and Ike's joining them." Sheik explained, she glanced over to the row of doors which lead to the different Smashers rooms, "He refuses to come out…"

"Not again." Link groaned, he gave a sheepish grin to Luigi who was dusting himself off, "Sorry Luigi, I won't be able to help get you out of Wii Fit Trainer's workout scheme." Luigi sighed and waved his apology away, "Don't worry, I figured something like this might happen, so I enlisted the Pikachu Squad's help."

Right on cue, four Pikachus appeared looking at Luigi with pride, the leader was the Pikachu without a costume while the other three were simply lackeys, there was the brash fiery green headband Pikachu who was a great fighter, the planner, Blue google Pikachu who often took charge whenever Pikachu wasn't around and the simple red capped Pikachu who preferred to stay in the shadows.

They saluted and said in perfect unison, "Operation ruin Female Wii Fit Trainer is go!" Sheik blinked in surprise and looked at Luigi who was studying his shoes very closely, "How did you get the Pikachu squad, the very same squad who planned to over throw everything in Brawl on your side?"

"They just noticed that I had lighting powers." Luigi mumbled, Headband chirped, "Plus he's cool! Super cool!" Goggle nodded and said, "Plus he has super cool plans for pranking people!" Pikachu winched and gently backhanded Goggle, "We weren't supposed to stay that out loud!"

"Oops." They quickly kidnapped Luigi and said a hurried goodbye while Mario and Link laughed, "There… Interesting…" Sheik deiced Mario nodded in agreement while Link headed off to Roy's room to try and cox him out.

He found Marth and Ike yelling at the door, ordering Roy to either come outside or let them in so they could talk in private. "Alright Roy!" Ike unsheathed his sword and prepared to set the door aflame, "If you don't come out this instance! Then I'm burning your door down!"

Marth hastily forced Ike to put his sword away and said, "He's kidding! But we would really like to talk this over!" The door opened slightly and Roy glared at Ike, "I'll talk, but not with Ike!"

Ike growled but did nothing as Marth buried his face in his hands, "Roy, you need to talk to Ike since were going to be on the same team!"

"Not happening!" with that, Roy slammed the door shut. Forcing Marth and Ike to go back to plan A, banging on the door and pleading for Roy to come and talk. Link joined them and Marth breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness you're here Link." Marth gestured to the door, "As you can see, we've been trying to get Roy out but…"

"He's being a stubborn mule and refuses to come out." Ike growled, "I am not!" Roy argued, they heard something fall to the ground and winched as Roy shouted something in Japanese. Judging from the way Ike and Marth frowned it was probably a curse word.

Link sighed and knocked on the door, Roy carefully opened the door and glared at Link, "Yes?"

"Is there a reason why you're locking yourself in your room?" Link asked, Roy glared at Ike and was about to close the door when Link used his hook shot, forcing Roy into the hallway. "Hey!" Roy struggled but couldn't get free, he scowled and crossed his arms in defeat.

"Come on Roy, we're talking this over." Link dragged him back into his room with Marth and Ike close behind him, Roy flinched when Ike stepped on a letter someone had sent him. Link placed Roy on his bed which was decorated with fire, flames and his sword in the middle. There was a second bed to the right but it was hidden by a dark purple curtain.

"Now then, why don't you want to work with Ike, Roy?" Marth asked gently, he sat down besides Roy who pretended to be studying his oddly shaped lamp. It reminded Link of a fairy since it was circular, but also of a sword since it had a sharp tip.

"You know why." Roy grumbled, "I do?" Roy glared at Marth who pretended that he had no idea what Roy was talking about, "Fine!" Roy jumped off his bed and pointed at Ike who glowered down at him, "I don't like him since he replaced me!" Roy snapped, "Happy now!?"

"Since when did I replace you?" Ike demanded, "It's not my fault that you weren't up to snuff for Brawl!" Roy stood tall and made eye contact with Ike. "You replaced me, and don't deny it, you stole me spot next to Marth, you stole my attack style and my rightful place in the army." Link flinched when he saw how calm and collective Roy was acting, even though he was chewing out Ike. Ike was about to argue some more when a tired voice sighed, "If you're going to argue about being replaced than leave me out of it."

Roy glared at the curtain and snapped, "You could easily just leave ya know!" Ike readied his sword but Marth stopped him, "I could, but you forbid me from leaving with your book, remember your highness?"

"…You're enjoying the fact that your right and I'm wrong already."

"Yes, yes I am. Then again I am also enjoying this wonderfully useless argument." The voice snickered, Ike glared at the curtain and snapped, "Who are you!?"

The curtain opened by unseen hands and Mewtwo glared at Ike, lazily holding his book with his physic powers. "Hmph," Mewtwo stopped glaring long enough to look Ike up and down, the stuffy playfulness gone from his voice. "I am Mewtwo, the first ever manmade Pokémon to exist." Ike blinked a couple times trying to understand what Mewtwo was saying, Link couldn't really blame him, Mewtwo was… Interesting from his appearance to his attitude. And meeting him for the first time was… Interesting.

Mewtwo tended to look down on all the human fighters, preferring to hang out with Pokémon and sometimes Kirby in hopes of educating him properly (It never worked) Mewtwo also tended to get on everyone's nerves since he acted like he was the smartest person around, and the fact that he was a Physic Pokémon who was pretty much a genius didn't help.

"Well, have fun with your argument." Mewtwo floated toward the door and forced it open, "Bowser invited me to the villain meeting or something idiotic." Roy laughed and shook his head, "I guess he forgot the first time you went and attacked everyone for having completely worthless plans."

Mewtwo gave a dry chuckle and pointed out, "Well, everyone except Gannondorf, he had an okay plan the first time around, the only problem was that he waited Seven years before trying to destroy his hero." Link winched as Mewtwo gave him a look that clearly said that the only reason why he was alive was because he was lucky.

"See ya later Mew," Roy hit the floor as Mewtwo flung a metal trophy at his head, "How many times do I have to tell you!?" Mewtwo snarled, "Don't. Ever. Call. Me. Mew!" And with that he slammed the door shut and left, Roy giggled and muttered, "Your reaction totally makes it worth it." He winched as Mewtwo yelled, "I heard that moron!"

Marth sighed and looked at Roy who was sheepishly studying his books, "You just enjoy getting on his nerves. Don't you." Roy fake gasped and put a hand to his heart, "Me? Get on Mewtwo nerves? How dare you accuse me of such vile nature?"

"Yes, who would have ever thought that the guy who charged his attack up to the point that he injured himself would do something that evil?" Link teased. Roy laughed and defended himself with, "Not my fault that the people controlling me though it was funny!"

"Wait, he blew himself up because it was funny?" Ike questioned, Roy nodded, "And Fox also jumped off the stage just to scream Wyatt!"

"I wasn't doing it to be funny!" everyone looked at the door to see Fox and Falco, Fox was tapping his foot probably annoyed at the fact that his opponents were taking forever.

"We know Fox." Roy stood up and gave his sword a few practice swings, "But for right now, I wonder how many times you'll scream Wyatt." Fox grinned and tossed his pistol up in the air before skillfully catching it, "I wonder how many times you'll blow yourself up."

"It's on doggie!"

"In your dreams flame boy!"

And with that Fox and Roy raced to the café to choose the stage playfully hurling insults at each other, Falco and Ike watched in amusement, "Never seen Roy this hyped up to a battle before." Falco mused, "It's probably because Mewtwo cheered him up." Marth noted, Link grinned and said, "Well whatever the reason, you guys had better hurry up before he realizes he's on the same side as Ike."

Marth winched and chased after the red head while Ike and Falco took their time. Link decided to head back to his room and catch up on some reading, Phoenix had lent him some interesting books that involved magic and he was itching to read them. Even though he wasn't a mage or a magic wielder like Zelda or Lady Palutena. He had used magic items during his adventures and potions in order to progress further without dying.

Knowing how to make potions could come in handy one of these days, so he wouldn't have to waste valuable rupees on buying more. Link passed Kirby, Joe Boxer (Little Mac, but everyone from Brawl called him Joe Boxer since they had no clue on what his real name was at the time) JigglyPuff and Toon Link who happily started talking about the best bombs and arrows to use when fighting evil.

Zelda fidgeted and twitched as Palutena braided her hair, she wasn't use to girly activities that weren't planning for a party or courting someone, she had grown up during a time for peace and action. Spending most of her time trying to learn how to protect herself or how to plan for war if needed. So having a somewhat private girls' night out was not her cup of tea.

Although it seemed to be right up the Goddess's alley since she was happily giving tips to Phoenix, who was Robin's female counter part on hair braiding and make up for Rosalina the mother of Lumas.

"Can we please stop?" Zelda half asked, half begged as Palutena combed through her hair, trying to get rid of all of the tangles that had magically appeared ever since Zelda had arrived.

"Ah, ah, ah~" Peach grinned and playfully scolded the Princess of Hyrule, "You promised us some girl time, that included Sheik and you have been putting it off for too long!"

Zelda groaned and flinched as Palutena combed through her hair again, "Look on the bright side Zel." Zelda glared at Phoenix who was re-braiding Sheik's hair, she looked completely embarrassed that she had to remove her scarf. "At least you have Lucina on your side." Lucina glared at her friend and grumpily fixed her tiara, "Can we please skip the makeovers and start gossiping or something?"

"I agree! Let's start talking!" Sheik yanked her scarf away from Phoenix and shakily placed it back on her head and around her mouth, "I'm back with the cookies." Rosalina daintily placed a tray on the blanket they were using and scolded a couple baby Lumas who were trying to steal some.

"Aww, there so cute!" Lucina cooed, she patted the red Luma and hugged it, earning coos of delight from the baby star. "And there also a handful," Rosalina laughed earning a small protest of, "Are not mama!"

Peach clapped her hands and took a bite out of her cookie, "Well, since some people wish to do something besides our wonderful makeover." Peach looked right at Zelda and Lucina who rolled their eyes, "What topic should we talk about?"

"Well, we can't talk about boys." Phoenix deiced, "Since we have two snooping around already." She glanced over to Rosalina's cottage where Shulk and Owl, the male Robin were examining everything outside of the little house, trying to figure what magic or machine Rosalina used to make the planet livable.

"Well, they aren't too bad." Zelda offered then she paused and added, "Compared to that noisy Duck Hunt dog and Pacman."

Everyone shuddered, Duck Hunt was annoying. He spied on everyone, ruined little picnics and sometimes evening strolls. No one but the Villagers really liked him and of course Kirby who Duck Hunt hated since Kirby would tackle him and pet him over and over again.

"Well, we could talk about the villains we faced." Palutena offered, Phoenix shuddered, "Next topic." Sheik played with her braid and suggested, "How about we talk about the newcomers?" Zelda shot that idea down quickly, reminding Sheik that everyone in the group was a newcomer to Smash. The girls thought for a while but couldn't really think about anything interesting to talk about.

"Well, we could watch the match down below." Phoenix suggested, Peach looked down just in time to see Fox flying out of the stage, "Hey! Roy's fighting!"

"He is?" Zelda joined her and grinned, "Nice to see that he and Ike aren't fighting for once." Phoenix looked down and sighed, revealed that her team was winning, "I was terrified that Roy might spend the entire battle arguing with Ike."

"Well, looks like we were wrong." Lucina pulled her long blue hair into a ponytail and watched the match below, Palutena frowned slightly and wondered aloud, "Although, I wonder what that big argument was about earlier." Lucina glanced up at the Goddess, "Marth, Ike and Link were trying to convince Roy to come out of his room to talk, Link managed to finally talk to Roy after he used his hookshot." Rosalina sighed and stroked a yellow Luma, "I wish those two would get along."

"For those two to get along it would be like Lucario, Mewtwo and Greninja becoming besties." Shulk joked, he sat down and watched the match below, "I'm guessing that you two still couldn't figure out how we manage to breath in outer space?" Peach asked,

Owl joined Shulk and groaned, "We tried every possible solution, even using Shulk's theory that Rosalina's planet works like the Bionis. Using Ether to supply energy and life."

Shulk sighed and looked around the small galaxy, "We even tried magic and the Mondao's power in search of answers." He glanced over at Palutena who was enrapt with watching the battle, "Do you have any idea on how-,"

"Shh! There getting to the good part!" Shulk glanced down and frowned, not understanding the Goddess's love for fighting, or at least for watching it. "Right, my mistake." He looked at Zelda and Sheik who shook their heads, not understanding it either.

"Well, looks like this will be an unanswered question." Shulk decided, "True, but now we can focus on the next problem!" Owl jumped up and looked down at Roy, "Figuring out why Roy and Mewtwo don't like certain people!"

Shulk grinned and joined his friend, "Right! Although it's going to be a bit trickier since their people…" Lucina laughed and playfully punched Owl, "Well, I'll give you boys a clue. They seem to have been replaced by Ike and Lucario." Lucina quickly regretted giving them a clue since they tackled her and begged for more information which Phoenix happily suppled, "Alright! Let's go interview some of the council!" Owl declared,

"Agreed!"

Zelda and Peach giggled as the boys and Phoenix dragged Lucina off on their next mystery,

"Well, looks like there going to be busy." Rosalina giggled, the girls started tossing around ideas on how Shulk and Owl would get the information when Sheik killed the playful mood, "But… What if they find out about the forgotten…?"

Zelda and Peach paled and shot Sheik a look to zip it, but Palutena and Rosalina leaned forward, interested about the forgotten, Peach made a hurried excuse about talking to Mario and left, leaving Sheik and Zelda to fend for themselves, "Soooo." Palutena leaned forward, resting her hands on her staff's orb, "What are the forgotten?" Zelda hesitated and stammered, "It's nothing of your concern for now." Rosalina noticed how uncomfortable Zelda and Sheik were and quickly said, "If it's something…. Close to your past then we won't ask about it!"

The luma princess glared at Palutena and nudged her, "Right Palutena?"

"Hmm? Oh right!" She sat up and waved away the matter, laughing nervously, "We'll stop bothering you if it's too painful!" then she leaned forward, a sinister glint in her eyes, "Buuuutt… It would be nice to know."

Zelda gulped and was about to make an excuse when Sheik grabbed her arm and ninja vanished to the Café, leaving the Princess and the Goddess alone, the Lumas sighed. Disappointed that their new friends had left abruptly and floated away, Rosalina whacked Palutena and chided her, "There probably going to avoid us now!" She stood up and wrung her hands, "Ohh! I hope they like apology cookies."

Palutena watched and sighed, "I just wanted to know what the forgotten were." She looked around and found that the battle had ended, "Tsk, I'll just have to ask Pit about who won." She left, not noticing the sudden chill in the air or the Lumas' sudden nervousness as they felt someone watching them.

Palutena glided down to the Café just in time to see Roy storm off, while Marth desperately held Ike back who seemed ready to murder someone. "What happened now?" Palutena asked, dreading the answer. A Jigglypuff looked up at her and answered her question, "At the last moment, Zero knocked Ike out of the ring and Roy was left on his own to fight. They won, but Ike…" the Jigglypuff glanced over to where Marth was now scolding Ike.

"But Ike didn't like the outcome of the fight." Palutena sighed and headed for her room, she hated it when anyone fought among their teammates it ruined the sport of fighting in her opinion. She pasted Pit and Dark Pit who were chatting with Headband and Toon Link.

"Hey Lady Palutena!" Pit grinned at the Goddess, "Did you see the awesome match we had?" Dark Pit snorted, "Awesome? We got destroyed out there."

"It wasn't that bad Pitto."

"Stop calling me that!"

Palutena bit back a smile as they two argued about Dark Pit's nickname, Headband glared at them and snapped, "Who cares? It's just a dumb nickname!" Toon Link led Headband away saying, "It's probably a good idea to leave them alone."

"What?! I was just about to challenge those losers to a battle!"

"Headband." Headband glared at the green clad boy and pouted, "Spoilsport."

Yup, it was a normal day in the Smash Kingdom… Or so everyone thought. Little did they know that their life would be turned upside down in a short amount of time, by an old enemy….


	2. Chapter 2, Something's Stirring

Chapter Two Something's Stirring

"The meeting for villains shall come to order." Gannondorf declared, Mewtwo groaned inward and looked around the somewhat cramped room, he couldn't wait to find a reason to leave this time. He waited as Gannondorf, the self-proclaimed leader called for each club member

"Bowser."

"Here!" The Koopa King looked around the room for some odd reason, a smug look on his beastly face,

"Koopa Kids,"

The seven koopalings happily shouted, "Here!" Then proceeded to bicker among themselves about whose Koopa car was the coolest.

"Meta-knight,"

"Here," Mewtwo glanced over at the masked warrior who was really a Kirby, Mewtwo was sort of surprised that Metaknight kept coming to these ridiculous meetings since he was more or less an Anti-Hero, he helped out Dreamland when the time came and offered Kirby training when the pink little puff ball wasn't munching on food or saving Dreamland but he did have his own villainous plans from time to time.

"King Dedede,"

"Here!" The giant blue penguin swung his hammer and glared at the Koopa King. They were more or less rivals since they were both kings, they probably could have been great allies if it wasn't for their evil plans. Sometimes King Dedede helped Dreamland out like Metaknight, but he was mostly trying to foil Kirby or cause some trouble for the little menace.

But that wasn't why they hated each other, King Dedede mostly focused on creating problems to get rid of Kirby, the only person who stood in his way of officially becoming the King of Dreamland, and Bowser preferred to capture the Princess and let his weak minions face the Mario Bros.

"Mewtwo,"

"Not here." Everyone glared at the Pokémon who simply rolled his eyes, he didn't care that they hated him, he never understood why they kept inviting him since he wasn't truly a villain.

Sure he had done something along the lines of evil but, at the time Mewtwo had just been created and enslaved, getting his first taste of freedom after he used his full power to destroy his prison and send his creators, Team Rocket into a blind panic as he deiced to create a world solely for Pokémon believing that trainers were just as cruel as his own.

He created his own island, invited trainers under the guise of Nurse Joy who he had brainwashed and captured their Pokémon to create improved clones who battled bravely against their originals. His plan had been foiled by the very same Pokemon he was created to mimic, Mew and that brave, yet foolish little boy who stepped into the middle of their battle and got himself turned into stone for a short period of time.

After that he had taken his own Pokemon and left to find a peaceful place away from the humans to sort out what he truly wanted.

"Wario."

Mewtwo glanced around the room, noticing that for the first time that Wario wasn't in the room. He frowned but ignored it, it wasn't the first time Wario had messed the meeting or been late chasing a get rich quick scheme.

"And the idiotic fatso isn't here." Gannondorf grumbled, "Wonderful."

"Well onto club business I suppose." He looked at Bowser who grinned, "Well, what do you have to share Bowser?" Bowser jumped up and proudly proclaimed, "I! I have a super genius plan to temporally get rid of those annoying heroes!"

"Oh really?" Mewtwo glanced up at Bowser and lazily said, "This doesn't include capturing the many princesses that are here does it?" a quick look at Bowser who cleared his throat to aruge that Mewtwo was wrong was all that Mewtwo needed to press on, "Because if it is, then you're going to have to face a lot more than just their bodyguards."

"Yea well, it's better than your plan!" Bowser argued.

"That's because I don't bother wasting my time on plans that will fail due to how many heroes there are." Mewtwo stood up and opened the door with is his mind, "And once again, I find no reason to stay here any longer."

"Well, if you're leaving then why don't you look around for Wario?" Metaknight suggested, "He told me that he had something amazing to show us."

"Knowing him it will probably be Mario's famous cape or something dumb." Mewtwo sighed, "But I'll keep an eye out for the moron."

"Nice going King Dad." Bowser Jr. snickered as Mewtwo left the meeting, for the tenth time in the row, "You once again managed to lose the most powerful Pokémon ever."

"Shut up Junior!" Bowser snapped, the rest of his kids laughed as Gannondorf suggested a plan very similar to his own plan from his seven-year takeover of Hyrule.

Mewtwo walked down the hallway toward Wario's room which was located with most of the Mario cast rooms, he knocked on the door covered in coins and motorbikes and waited for an answer. There was none, meaning that Wario wasn't in.

Mewtwo groaned as he realized that he was actally going to have to talk to people to figure out where the moron was, he glanced down the long hallway and spotted Lucario chatting with Chibi, the pink haired Villager with sparkly eyes.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Mewtwo groaned, he hesitantly floated toward the duo and cleared his throat, they didn't notice him so he tried again. They still didn't notice him, frustrated Mewtwo flipped Lucario in the air before dropping him hard on the ground.

"Gah! Mewtwo!" Chibi ran behind Lucario and was calmly dusting himself off, "I didn't see you there." Mewtwo nodded and got right to the point, not in the mood for chit-chat, "Have you two seen Wario anywhere? He's late for that stupid meeting."

"Nope! I've been hanging out with Ness and Kirby! And then Lucario!" Chibi giggled, "I managed to get Ness in a pitfall so Kirby could steal his hat! Tee-he!"

"…Okay then…" Mewtwo looked at Lucario who had his palm out, eyes closed. Mewtwo frowned but guessed that Lucario was using his aura power for something.

"To answer your question, I have not seen Wario." Lucario opened his eyes and frowned, "And I can't sense his aura as easily as I used to."

"Maybe the large amount of people are messing up your aura readings?" Mewtwo suggested. Lucario shook his head "I have figured out a way to find or sense certain people's aura, I can easily find Wario since his aura is certainly… Bright in some ways. But now…"

Mewtwo looked down the hallway and sighed, regretting what he was about to ask, "Come on." Lucario blinked at Mewtwo in surprise, "Excuse me?" Mewtwo bit his tongue and floated past the stunned Chibi and Lucario,

"I said come on, and this problem is going to bug you to no end. So you might as well come and help me find the moron."

Lucario nodded in agreement and mutely walked beside Mewtwo, who was currently yelling at himself for inviting the aura Pokemon along, his own replacement.

"At least he's being quiet." Mewtwo sighed and decided that it couldn't get any worse than this and entered the mostly empty café. The TV was off and the only people in the area was the Pikachu squad, Luigi, Captain Falcon and Oilmar, he somehow managed to lose Alph which was rare since the two tiny fighters stuck close with their few Pikmin warriors.

Mewtwo paused long enough for Lucario to aura scan the room before they headed to the train station, "Are we getting any closer?" Lucario shook his head no, "I can't tell for sure, his aura keeps moving, yet the owner isn't."

Mewtwo tilted his head, "Huh?" Lucario hesitated and tried to explain, "Its like those paddle ball toys, the ball bounces from the plank of wood but the plank itself isn't moving."

"So Wario's aura is bouncing back and forth? As if he's trapped?" Lucario nodded and they looked around the train station, there were a couple benches, a small welcome center and of course a loudspeaker that announced who was coming and who was going. Mewtwo sighed, looked at the train tracks and froze.

"Lucario." Lucario stopped his aura search and looked at Mewtwo, "What is it?" Mewtwo pointed to the small subway train and asked, "When has the train arrived early?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's Friday, the train is only used on Saturdays due to the fact that there are no more Newcomers, so only K.K uses it." Mewtwo glanced at Lucario who frowned at the puzzle, "So… What is the train doing here a day early?"

"Perhaps that what's Wario was wondering about as well." Mewtwo glided to the train door and forced it open, "Come on." They quickly entered and scouted the area, the first car of the subway like train was empty, the signs that Wario had entered or life, they head to the next car which was also empty and reached the third to find an odd surprise.

"He must be in here." Lucario declared, Mewtwo nodded and went back to trying to open the door, which was jammed. "Either that or someone's hiding something." Mewtwo muttered, he pulled once more and managed to get the door to open a crack when the car lurched forward, sending Mewtwo and Lucario stumbling into each other.

"Really?!" Mewtwo looked at the front car in disgust, "Of all the times you decided it's time to go you choose now!?"

"Come on!" Lucario helped Mewtwo to his feet and they raced for the exit, they couldn't risk staying on the train, it was too risky even though Wario may or may not be trapped on board. No one really knew where the train went after it dropped its passengers off, but there were some rumors that it led to a world of darkness, and that anyone who was unlucky enough to explore it was torn apart by invisible monsters.

Lucario and Mewtwo watched as the train pulled out of the station taking their only clue of Wario's whereabouts with it.

"…Should we tell the others?" Lucario asked, Mewtwo frowned and shook his head, "We have no proof, so we can't be sure if Wario was even on that dumb train."

"True…" Lucario sighed and got up he looked at Mewtwo as if he wanted to ask him something but looked away, Mewtwo ignored him and deiced to focus on other places Wario could be. The long silence was finally broken by Lucario.

"So…." Mewtwo sighed and glared up at him, Lucario fidgeted and tried to casually ask, "Pikachu and Pacman invited me to a card game."

"And you were wondering if I would like to come." Mewtwo finished, Lucario nodded and pawed the ground, embarrassed that Mewtwo had quickly gotten to the point meaning that there was no way that- "Fine." Lucario looked up, surprised that Mewtwo had answered so quickly, "Excuse me?"

Mewtwo stood up and floated back to the café, "I said I'll go, we're meeting in Pikachu's room I presume?"

"Y-yes! At 5:30, I'll see you there!" Lucario watched as Mewtwo floated out of view and sighed and relief, he knew that fixing the riff that his prescient had created wasn't going to be easy but at least this was a step forward. He smiled and headed to the café, once again it was nearly empty, giving some time for Lucario to meditate away from his annoying roommate, Greninja.

Lucario found a nice quiet spot and began, blocking out everything except for the bell that rang every hour. It was peaceful, and allowed Lucario to fully think over the few problems he had.

When he had first come here he was expecting countless arguments to take place over who was better, he was thankfully wrong. Metaknight had proved him that much when they first met, and first fought.

Then there was… "Snake…" Lucario opened his eyes and sighed, Snake was the only real war spy who appeared in Smash, he had joined Metaknight's and Lucario's party to stop Tabuu when Lucario sensed his hiding spot under a box in Metaknight's ship. He wasn't one for war but he didn't mind helping Snake revlave stress by talking or by having a causal game of go fish.

Lucario couldn't help but wonder what had happen to the man, was he sent back to work in the army? Or was he on a top secret mission to save his world? No one knew. He didn't have long to wonder about Snake's current whereabouts when a cheerful, "Poyo!" Snapped him out of his thoughts, "Oh. Hello Kirby."

Kirby grinned and proudly showed Lucario a badly drawn picture, Lucario gently took it and examined it, "Is this you playing with the Lumas?"

"Poyo!" Kirby happily jumped up and down and hugged Lucario, pleased that someone had figured out his drawing. "Kirby, what have I told you about running off?" Kirby flinched and sulkily turned to face Metaknight who was giving Kirby a pale red glare, it always amused Lucario to see Metaknight's expression change, since the only thing that changed was his eye color.

It also amused him to see the somewhat dangerous pink puffball being scolded by the knight. Then again, from what Metaknight had told him that Kirby was a baby, being woken up to early to help protect a little town in Dreamland from a menace called Nightmare. He was also a Star warrior like Metaknight who withheld this information from Gannondorf with good reasons.

But Kirby wasn't a joke, if he knew that something bad was happening then he wouldn't back down to protect his friends and family with the help of his copy ability and his fearsome hammer.

"Luca…" Kirby sent Lucario a pleading look in hopes that his second favorite person would save him from trouble. Lucario sighed and patted Kirby's head, "Metaknight, don't be so hard on Kirby you know he was just excited." Metaknight gave a weary sigh and mumbled, "When he is ever not excited."

"But Kirby." Kirby stopped his happy dance and glanced at Lucario, "You know that Metaknight worries about you when you run off without telling him." Kirby deflated and looked at his fatherly like friend, "Sowwry."

"You're forgiven." Kirby grinned and hugged Metaknight who blushed a light pink and patted him on the head. Happy that he wasn't in trouble Kirby wandered over to bug Little Mac who was doing a quick practice for some unknown reason.

"You seem happy," Lucario looked at his friend whose yellow eyes glowed in amusement, "Well, it might have to be because I managed to invite Mewtwo to a game of cards."

"Oh?" Metaknight sat beside Lucario who began explaining everything, when he had finished Metaknight smiled, "Well, that's one way to fix the drifting gap."

"In a way yes, but…"

"But…?" Metaknight raised an eyebrow, not understanding what the problem was, "The only way to fix the problem is to confront it."

Lucario grimaced and nodded, "True, but how can you solve a problem when it comes to a Pokemon that you barely know."

"You could start by not talking behind my back." Lucario winched and looked up at Mewtwo, who was glowering down at them, "Hello…"

"The card game shall be in Pacman's room, correct?" Lucario winched once more from Mewtwo's tone, it sounded like an annoyed parent but at the same time it sounded like a teacher who had caught you in the middle of cheating but wasn't outright confronting you.

"Yes, that is correct."

Mewtwo stiffly nodded and teleported away. Leaving the knight and the fighter silent. "Well, I understand your fear now." Metaknight said after a while.

Rosalina hummed to herself as she prepared dinner for the baby Lumas, her happy tune was interrupted by the sound of pots and pans falling to the ground, "Still having trouble with that shelf children?" Toon Link, Ness, Treeleaf and Goggles sheepishly peered into the kitchen.

"Sort of. But we've nearly fixed it!" Ness glanced at his friends who quickly agreed, "If it's too much trouble for you, then I wouldn't mind calling Captain Falcon up and-," Rosalina's offer was quickly shot down with a startled, "NO!"

Treeleaf stepped into the kitchen saying, "Everything's under control!"

"Honest!" Toon Link yelped, Rosalina sighed and shook her head, she would never understand the children's dislike for the race car driver and would probably never figure it out. She simply turned back to the stove and stirred the star bit stew while the children had hushed arguments and the noise of pots and pans resumed.

"Alright!" Goggles cheered, "I think we-," CRASH! Rosalina winched and listened as Ness and Treeleaf toed the ground. "Ya know, I think these things hate us." Toon Link said after a while,

"Grahh! Just stay on the dumb shelves you pieces of metal!"

"Goggles, I don't think yelling at them well help." Treeleaf yawned,

"…No one asked you."

Rosalina smiled as everyone laughed at Goggles as he went back to yelling at the now dented cookware. She glanced out the window, spying Roho and Yellow playing with a Pokeball that had randomly appeared in the front yard, she was about to head back to her cooking when she spotted something, or rather two somethings.

Two faces were watching the lumas from behind a bush, Rosalina blinked and rubbed her eyes before she looked again. The faces were gone. She frowned and dismissed at her being tired from all the excitement that had happened earlier.

She resumed her humming and went back to cooking. "Alright!" Toon Link poked the wooden shelf with his sword and tried his best to be menacing, "If you don't stay up, then I'll have no choice but to cut you down to size punk!" the plank of wood stayed in place, then promptly fell to the ground.

"Yep, it hates us." Goggles decided, Treeleaf yawned and kicked the piece of wood a couple times before suggesting, "Maybe we should try to fix this problem in the morning."

"Yea, but this time. We'll have reinforcements!" Goggles pointed at the pots and hissed, "You're going down!" Ness laughed and poked Goggles, "I'm guessing these reinforcements will be the Pikachu army?"

"Yup! They stand no chance against us!" Goggles proudly glared down at the cookware and marched out of the house, well tried. He tripped over the rug earning a howl of laughter from the Lumas who were watching.

"Okay… We may have to defeat this evil rug as well." Goggles got up and stuck his tongue out at his friends, "Last one back to the café is a slowpoke!"

"You're on!" The group raced out of the house with Goggles in the lead Toon Link eagerly tried to pass Treeleaf but stopped when he heard a tree branch snap. He tensed and pulled out his sword and shield, he crept toward the bush. Which seemed to be the source of the noise and lunged forward, prepared to shield bash whoever was hiding in the bush.

He was slightly disappointed to find that no one was there, "I guess it was a random Bob-omb or something." Toon Link looked around and noticed two pairs of shoe marks, he frowned and felt the triangle marks. Whoever was here came with a partner who had studded sandals. But whose? Toon Link could think of a pair who stuck close but… They weren't here.

Toon Link shook his head to clear his thoughts and went back to racing, once he was just a green dot in the distance, twin sighs were heard and two nearly identical faces peered out of the bush. "That was close bro." the boy nodded and tightened his blue scarf, "A bit too close for comfort sis."

"Let's head back and report, Master will be pleased with what we had found out."

"And so will 3 Rehtom." The two started to head back to their base when they heard the front door open, the listened and growled softly when they heard Rosalina humming and chuckling softly as she watched the Lumas fool around.

"I wish we could end her."

"So do I, but for now." They grinned and scurried back to the train, "For now. We have to stay in the shadows."

By the time Toon Link finally caught up, they ended up racing to the nature area, which had a quaint little park with woods surrounding everything, after they took a quick water break they started to play their favorite game, catch and trap.

Treeleaf, would play the catcher and would use her net to sneak up on her victims and 'catch' them. The unlucky person would join her team to catch the other players while the 'trappers' placed small pitfalls to try and catch the catchers.

They crept around the darkening park and tried not to be seen by Treeleaf who was sneaking down the pathway, net in hand and an impish glint in her eyes.

"Oh Ness~ I see you!" Ness screamed as Treeleaf netted him and tossed him into a bush, "Owwww…" Ness sat up and glared at Treeleaf who simply smiled and went back to searching.

Ness hated it when Treeleaf was it, she always managed to turn the cheerful game into a nightmare. He glanced at the setting sun and grimaced. Playing in the dark was a big no-no when playing catch and trap.

Sighing he pulled out his yo-yo which was his only way to grab people and started searching the somewhat dense forest, he didn't have to search for long when Goggles dashed out in front of him taunting, "Ya can't catch me!"

"Oh yea?" Ness gave chase and promptly fell into a pitfall, "Victory!" Toon Link cheered, Goggles quickly tapped Ness putting him back on the trappers team and straighten his goggles,, "I told you it would work!"

Toon Link laughed, "Yes, yes you did." There small moment of triumph was quickly destroyed by Treeleaf jumping down from a tree, "Found ya~!"

"IEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!" The boys scattered as Treeleaf laughed her head off, leaning on her net for support. "You guys are so much fun!" Treeleaf giggled she gave chase as the boys forgot the plan to be sneaky and ran around terrified at being caught. Treeleaf won in the end, "Scardy cats! There's nothing that's gonna hurt us!" Treeleaf said, Ness and Toon Link groaned and collapsed on the forest floor tired and barely able to breathe.

"Easy… For… You… To… Say." Goggles gasped, Treeleaf giggled and skipped around a bench singing, "I'm number one~ I'm number one~"

Her song quickly ended when a figure from the shadows asked, "Whose number one?" Treeleaf screamed and dove behind a tree, the boys would have screamed too but they deiced to stay quiet. Greninja stepped out of the shadows his tongue scarf perked up with interest.

"Hey Greninja," Goggles gave a tired wave before falling onto his face, "We were just playing a game of catch and trap." Toon Link explained, "Catch and… Trap?" Greninja tiled his head trying to figure out what the game was.

"Yea! It's a game were one person is it, and they have to grab the other players to make them swap teams, but for everyone who isn't it they have to try and trap the catchers." Treeleaf explained, "And Treeleaf loves it since she gets to scare us half to death."

Ness glared at Treeleaf who blushed and bashfully looked away, "Aww. Nice to see that you guys do care." She yawned and rubbed her eyes, "Well, It's getting dark and I'm getting sleepy. See ya guys!"

"See ya tomorrow Treeleaf!" Ness waved goodbye while Toon Link and Goggles silently cheered, glad to know that they weren't going to be scared half to death again.

"Okay then… I'm going to keep looking for Kirby." Greninja disappeared into the darkness once more while Ness and Toon Link got to their feet, it wasn't that dark but after a full day of playing they needed to crash on their soft beds. They bid each other goodbye while Goggles snored peacefully on the forest floor.

Ness walked to his room which was near Pacman's and heard the happy voices of people playing cards, Ness couldn't help but snoop since the door was cracked open, he grinned when he saw Mewtwo looking ready to murder Pacman who was happily taking his cards, Pikachu and Lucario were quietly laughing as Pacman tried to say uno but Mewtwo cut him off,

"Uno! Now surrender my cards!"

"Mewtwo, it doesn't work like that." Fox sighed, he placed a card down and glanced at Falco who groaned, "We're reversing? Again?"

"Yes, again." Fox sighed, "Muahaha! I Pikachu shall turn the tides by reversing it. Once more!" Pikachu slammed the card down and smugly grinned at Fox, Falco groaned once more and picked up a card while Mewtwo and Lucario shook their heads.

"This is the third time you two have pulled the reverse card." Mewtwo snapped, "Enough is enough!"

"I know, but's just so funny to see Falco get a headache!" Pikachu snickered, Mewtwo glared at the electric mouse and smacked him with his tail earning a startled yelp and a friendly chorus of laughter.

"Un-,"

"Uno." Pacman glared at Mewtwo who gave him a smug grin, and handed him a card, "How do you do that?"

Mewtwo ignored him and nudged Lucario who had been reading a book since everyone had been reversing the order of the game, "Hmm? My turn?" Lucario pulled out a red card and lazily tossed it into the pile, Pikachu eagerly tried to get uno but Falco happily cut him off and handed him a card.

Pikachu glared at him and grumbled, "Spoilsport." Before taking the card. The game went on for a while before Ness got bored and headed to bed, just as Pikachu finally won the game.

"Muhahah! Victory is mine!" Pikachu cheered, Mewtwo sighed and used his physic powers and moved the cards back into the box, Lucario grinned as Pikachu performed his taunt. Roy, who had been hiding under the bed bugging the four ghosts that were Pacman's roommates, laughed and poked his head out. "Someone seems happy."

Pikachu grinned, "No duh! This moment of victory is better than Falco's clip of defending his friend."

Fox, Falco and Lucario groaned, "I had totally forgotten about that video!" Falco laughed, Mewtwo and Pacman raised an eyebrow, "What video?"

Lucario grinned and said, "It wasn't the video that was so funny. It was Falco's line. And Wolf's reaction which made it priceless."

"Who's Wolf?" Pacman asked, Fox waved the question away with a simple, "Villain from my world."

Before launching into the full story. Apparently, the people who had owned Brawl had preferred to create goofy or serious stories after they beat the main story. One of their stories featured the Ice Climbers attempting world domination since they were barely known in the Smashing world.

They did this by 'murdering' other players and by murdering, it was a simple stamina knock out which forced that player not to show up in the story line again unless it was a different version of that person. The Ice Climbers were being led by a ruthless black cloaked Ice Climber who had sent two soldiers to murder Wolf and Falco. Apparently, the owners of the game had built a little housing area just for the Star Fox crew

Which was were Falco and Wolf were hanging out. The Ice Climbers jumped Wolf and Ko'ed him, leaving Falco to save the day but Falco being an idiot he somehow managed to knock Wolf's body off the stage and bravely say, "'Hands off my friends." Which later turned out to be, "Hands off my prey." The humans had found this to be a crack up.

While Wolf found it to be worse than saying that Fox was a gifted pilot. He had chased the poor bird around the replay center where they stored famous battle moments until he was blue in the face.

"It got even better Saturday!" Fox said,

"How did it get better Saturday?" Mewtwo asked, since he was the only one who could ask since he was trying his best not to roll around on the ground laughing like a moron like Roy, Pacman and Falco were doing.

"Oh! Wasn't that when Falco took Wolf to a K.K concert and spent the entire time accidentally killing Wolf?" Pikachu asked.

"I still never figured out how the heck you managed to easily defeat Wolf that way." Lucario shook his head in amazement as he remembered watching from the sidelines as Wolf fruitlessly tried to murder Falco who was busy 'dancing' and sending Wolf flying off the small platform.

"Speaking of Wolf. Where is he? He sounds awesome!" Roy's grin faltered when the smashers from Brawl laughter faded and was replaced with jagged silence.

"…He was… Forgotten… Wasn't he?" Mewtwo asked, Fox and Falco grimly nodded, shutting the topic down completely from the pain they felt from leaving a somewhat formidable foe behind, even if Fox and Falco had hated his guts the entire time they were in Brawl.

"Well then…" Pacman awkwardly looked around trying to figure out how to change the mood, "I don't suppose anyone can tell me why Peach and Marth avoid each other like the plague?"

Lucario frowned and tapped his chin, "I believe it had something to do with this icky romance story the human children thought up." Fox snapped his fingers exclaiming, "Oh yea! I remember that! It was hilarious since the two killed each other in the funniest way possible!"

Falco and Roy snickered, "So… It was basically a TV soap?" Mewtwo asked. Everyone looked at him before howling with laughter, "What? What's so funny?" Mewtwo frowned and was tempted to hurl Pacman's messy bed at them all when Lucario managed to collect himself long enough to correct Mewtwo's mistake, "You mean a Soap Opera."

"Isn't that what I said?"

"Nope!" Roy giggled and wiped a tear from his eye, "You said TV soap. Instead of Soap Opera." Mewtwo threw his hands up, not getting the difference of the two names and growled, "I'm going to bed."

"Night Mew!" Falco snickered, Mewtwo glared at the bird before beating him over the head with a pillow. Falco yelped and ran around the room trying to out run the floating pillow but didn't get very far since he tripped over Fox who was laying on the floor, trying to recover from his laughing fit.

Mewtwo smirked and left the room while Fox yelled at Falco for being a klutz. Roy joined him, breathing heavily. "That was awesome!" Mewtwo glared at the only person he considered a 'friend' and grumbled, "That's because you happily watched from the sidelines."

Roy laughed and spun his sword in a circle, "I'm not sure what was funnier! The denied uno attempts or the infinite reversals."

"They weren't infinite."

"You sure? It seemed to go on forever." Roy ducked as Mewtwo attempted to whack him with his tail and stumbled into the Wii fit trainers who politely said good night and walked into their rooms.

"Are those two…. A couple?"

"I'm not sure." Roy watched the door close and yawned, "But that problem can wait. I need some serious zzzs'."

"… You need to stop hanging out with Sonic."

"Someone say my name?" Mewtwo flinched as the blue hedgehog himself grinned at him, looking very pleased with himself, "What did you do?" Mewtwo asked. Sonic pretended to look hurt and tried to say something but he was cut off by Bowser, "SONIC!"

Sonic grinned and saluted goodbye, "Gotta cruise!" he dashed away as a angry Bowser dripping in paint chased after him, hurling threats and death sentences, Roy had to flatten himself against the wall to avoid being trampled while Mewtwo teleported behind Bowser.

"What the heck happened?" Roy asked, Mewtwo shrugged and was about to float to his room when Bowser Jr and Ludwig crashed into him.

"Gak! Move it or lose it punk!" Bowser Jr. snapped, "Well I was moving until you so nicely CRASHED into me!" Mewtwo retorted. They glared at each other while Ludwig wheezed, "Can we get back to calming King dad before he figures out that we splashed him with paint?"

"Oh yea." Bowser Jr. gave Mewtwo his best glare and tried his best at sounding evil, "The only reason why you didn't get beat up is-," He didn't get very far since Mewtwo used his powers to pick him up and sent him flying in the direction his father had went.

Ludwig groaned and trudged after his younger brother, not use to this much running since he preferred to spend his time reading and playing the piano.

"You enjoy throwing people. Don't you?" Mewtwo frowned and thought for a while, "Not really, but…" Roy raised an eyebrow and asked, "But what?"

"I may or may not enjoy the next five seconds."

"What are you-," Roy's question was soon answered as Mewtwo picked him up and flung him down the hallway, right into Phoenix and Lucina who was saying good night to Little Mac.

"Owowowowo!" Roy opened his eyes and quickly regretted it when he found himself face to face with Lucina, who was lying on the ground her face a bright apple red.

"Eep! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Roy quickly stood up and tripped over his cape, crashing into Little Mac who was trying not to laugh. "Gahh! Mewtwo I am going to kill you for this!"

"What did Mewtwo do?" Little Mac asked pretending to be serious, but it wasn't working since he had a little grin on his face, "Oh nothing much, just hurled me down the hallway for his personal amusement." Roy glared at the spot Mewtwo was just at and helped Lucina up.

He blushed when he realized why his landing had been so soft, since Lucina had traded in her armor for a simple nightgown. He was about to beg for forgiveness in hopes of avoiding getting slapped in the face and being called a cad when Lucina cut him off by hurriedly asking he knew where Sheik was.

"Sheik? I haven't seen her all day." Roy glanced at Little Mac who shrugged, not knowing where Sheik was either. "Oh, well thanks anyway!" Roy watched as Lucina quickly dragged Phoenix down the hall away from them.

He frowned since they were right by Lucina's room, he was standing next to the door. But he didn't want to dwindle on that matter for long and headed to his room, saying good night to Little Mac and to Mewtwo who had reappeared to laugh at him.

Roy collapsed on the bed, tired from today's events and fell asleep without a second thought with a wish that everyday could be similar to today.

"Sooo… Is there a reason why were in the middle of the royal garden?" Lucina blinked and looked around, as if she just realized where they were. "Err… I just wanted to see the flowers, that's all." Phoenix laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Are you sure? Or were you just trying to calm yourself after being used as a crash pillow by your cru-,"

"Robin!" Phoenix laughed as Lucina clapped a hand over her mouth, embarrassed that she had nearly shouted. She cleared her thoart and calmly said, "I was just caught off guard. That's all."

"Suuureee, and I don't have a crush on Shulk." Phoenix teased. Lucina gasped and began scolding Phoenix about how she could majorly wreck the future if she did, Phoenix laughed and watched as Lucina finished and collapsed onto the fountain's edge.

"Don't tease me like that!" She snapped, Phoenix laughed again and joined her, tightening her robe as a cold breeze appeared causing the colorful flowers to sway gently and show off their beauty.

"Nearly time for fall." Phoenix mused, she silently scolded herself for coming out in a simply short sleeved nightgown which was hemmed right below her knees. Lucina noticed and playful poked her friend, "Bet your wishing you have a nightgown like mine eh?"

"Why would I want a royal blue nightgown that covers my feet?"

"To stay warm of course!"

They laughed and looked up at the night sky, "It's amazing, isn't it." Lucina hugged her knees and admired the twinkling starry sky the moon glowing a peaceful white.

"What's amazing? The fact that the night sky here is just as realistic as the one back home?"

"No… The fact that even though we're fighting. It feels like its just practice sparring, it's not like back home, where fighting only left death, broken hearts and forever wounded lands." Lucina sighed and pushed a lock of her dark blue hair out her face, Phoenix let that sink in for a minute. Lucina was right, Phoenix couldn't deny that she hadn't even notice the differences.

Or how it felt to be welcomed by complete strangers who didn't even know about Grima. She shuddered as she remembered how she and Owl were used as pawns for their father's plans. She pulled her sleeve back a little and flinched when she saw the mark of Grima. The only reason why she and Owl had become pawns and put their friends.

The only people who took them in during their amnesia and treated them as family in grave danger.

She shuddered as memories appeared, flashbacks that Grima had so kindly left when he possessed her. The bitter memories of her childhood that was given to her by her desperate mother. Who tried to save her only child from the murderous monster that her father had tried to bring back to life, the heartbreak she felt when she nearly killed Chrome her best friend and Prince of Exlat, her new home.

She barely noticed that she was shaking or that Lucina was calling her name, trying to snap her back to reality, she was too busy staring down the hateful monster known as Grima trying her best to seem brave even though her magic was gone, her sword Levin snapped in half and most of the Shepherds dead.

"Robin!" She jumped and looked around, surprised to see Lucina, Shulk and Owl looming over her, worried expressions and fear etched into their faces she was also surprised when she noticed that she was soaking wet. "Wha-," she tried to sit up but Owl gently pushed her down.

"Just try to breath. Alright? You were having a panic attack." She blinked but did as Owl said, even though she was trying to figure out why she was wet. Lucina offered her a blanket and a mug of hot coco, which she accepted with a grateful smile.

"Was it..." Phoenix nodded and looked away, slightly upset with herself for having a panic attack over nothing. Well, at least the boys were here to help.

"Do you need someone to talk to Phoenix?" Shulk bent down and leaned on his Mondao, she was amazed that the sword ran on other worldly energy that also held their world together but she didn't linger for long on that.

"I'm fine, just… Going over some bad memories." Lucina flinched and looked away, blaming herself for bringing up their home world. Owl gave her a look that plainly said that he didn't blame her for what happened and helped Phoenix up.

"I take it that I fell backward into the fountain then?" Shulk and Owl nodded while Lucina played with her hair, a sign that she was cleary upset over what happened.

"It was scary." Lucina shuddered as she remembered how sudden it had happened, "One moment were chatting about how different everything is then you look at your hand and fall over backward, you nearly drowned as you tried to call out to someone."

She shuddered again while Shulk frowned, "What's spookier is that I saw it happen." They looked at him confused, no understanding what he meant. He blushed and quickly explained, "What I meant was that the Monado sent me a vision of Phoenix falling into the somewhat deep fountain."

"Is that why you were staring blankly into space while we were trying to figure out where to look next?" Owl questioned, Shulk nodded and stood up,

"The Monado has the power to send me visions of the future, but I can usual will what I want to see happen. Mostly in battle where it becomes helpful." He frowned and sheathed his blade, "But ever since I got here it's been sending me visions of its own accord even when I'm outside of battles. And what's even weird is the visions themselves."

Phoenix and Owl looked at each other before leaning forward, curoise to know more. Lucina just watched still trying to comprehend that Shulk could see into the future.

"How are the visions weird? Is something blocking your view?" Owl asked, Phoenix frowned and snapped her fingers, "I got it! Maybe your seeing into the past! Or maybe the visions are acting up because they aren't in the proper environment? You said that the Monado is suspected to be running on ether energy since it killed a god."

"That's what I thought as well," Shulk fiddled with his jacket and sighed, "I ran over every check I could think of to ensure that it was in proper working order. I even tested it to see if the lack of ether was interfering. But…"

"But it was working fine and didn't seem to be a problem on your part." Phoenix guessed, "Right." Owl sighed and carefully touched the handle winching when it burned his finger. "Maybe it's grumpy?"

"How can a machine like sword be grumpy?" Lucina asked, "Well, Rob seems to have mood swings." Phoenix pointed out, "Remember that one time when he couldn't stop shooting lasers even after the battle ended?"

"Oh yea." Lucina kept her mouth shut after that and watched the magic and machine experts sit down and throw around theories. The Monado laying on the grass. Lucina sighed and joined them even though she had nothing to contribute.

"Do you remember what the vision was? Since we can't seem to figure anything else out, might as well look for clues." Owl asked, Shulk frowned as if trying to remember something and shook his head, "For some reason, I can't. It's as if it's a dream that I barely got to experience."

"Well maybe Pikachu has a friend who works with dreams." Phoenix offered, "That could help."

"But it wasn't a dream it was a vision." Owl pointed out,

"True, but most visions are sent in dreams." Owl frowned as Phoenix smirked at him, pleased to have found a flaw in his somewhat perfect logic. Shulk yawned and looked at the night-sky, probably to tell the time.

"Well, it's getting late." Shulk went to pick up the Monado, Phoenix and Owl also went to hand it to him while Lucina finally got the nerve to try and touch the sword, or better yet. Hold it to see how light or heavy it was.

The moment all four of them had made contact with the blade, a flash of light blinded them and they saw a somewhat clear, somewhat blurry image of the inside of the train. Phoenix and Owl looked around, more amazed than afraid as Lucina yelped and tried to figure out why she was floating above the train. Shulk gasped and watched as Wario entered the train car and headed toward a door which was phasing in and out of the picture.

"This was the vision!" Shulk realized,

"Are all visions this blurry?" Phoenix asked, Shulk shook his head no and frowned, "This wasn't even the weird part, visions are somewhat clear, clear enough to make out what's going on but not enough so you can't fully understand what the meaning is until later. But this…"

They watched as the camera angle shifted over to the third car which was even worse than the last two, they could barely see past the door. It was covered in black distorted static.

 ** _"What the-, you're not supposed to be here!_** " They watched as Wario backed away, before turning back to the door in an attempted to flee. Something blocked his path, it had a distorted outline but Shulk could vaguely make out an animal standing on its hind legs.

Like Fox or Falco, but when it spoke all they could hear was a distorted howl that sent chills down the girls' spines. They gasped in horror as Wario sneered, probably taunting the creature. Wario didn't have long to gloat since they heard a childlike laugh, that sounded a lot like Skullkid's only without the playful edge.

 _ **"What the- Toon Link!?"**_ The laugh appeared once more before the owner snarled something that sounded like a horrific scream. The owner lunged forward, his fighting stance a lot like Link's and more figures emerged from the shadows, the blurry, distorted outlines attacked Wario and the vision faded.

"Hey… Wasn't Mewtwo asking around about Wario?" Owl asked, his voice barely above a whisper as he feared that the heroic plumber's cad like copy may have just been murdered. "He didn't show up for that meeting… Bowser and Dedede were complaining about it." Lucina whispered.

"Is the vision over?" Phoenix asked, Shulk frowned and was about to reply when the vision changed fast forwarding in time it seemed. They watched the train completely covered in the static blackness. It seemed to be moving and Phoenix could make a faint outline, it was around Ness's height and had some weird hairstyle. The distorted voices were speaking but they couldn't make any sense of what they were saying.

But apparently they weren't pleased with whatever they had found. The small boy rubbed his arm and said something, probably a promise or a threat since the voices stopped. Leaving them in total silence. Finally they heard high pitched laughter that sounded like Pikachu when he found something funny. It didn't sound distorted either it sounded…. Normal.

They watched as the train came to a sudden stop, the black static sluggishly edged toward the door. As if afraid of getting off, the moment the door opened color exploded onto the screen as they were taken to the station, everyone was gathered around the train, waiting for something or someone.

It seemed like the happy kind of wait since there were excited chatters and a babble of happy laughter. Lucina gasped and pulled on Owl's sleeve, "Look!" She pointed down to themselves in the vision, they were bunched together hanging around in the middle of the group, but there future selves didn't seem happy, they seemed worried. Lucina noticed that her hand was gently hovering above her sword as if she was expecting an attack, Owl and Phoenix were flipping pages in their spell books trying to seem casual but they seemed to be looking for something.

Shulk was watching out for the train, his hands behind his head, close enough to pull out his sword easily without the risk of jostling someone. The train slid in and the four tensed as if expecting the worse. Then just as the doors began to open the vision cut out. **"Ah, ah, ah~!"** Phoenix yelped and pulled her tomb out ready to set the owner on fire for starling her, "Can't have you four snooping now do we?" Shulk spun around trying to find the owner of the cheery voice but only saw the glow of a faint light.

"Now, now! You'll figure out my mystery soon enough, but! Can't have you getting any sneak peeks!" The voice hummed to himself seemly toying with the four warriors, "Now then… What to do? What to do… Oh!" With a gleeful laugh it caused the faint light to explode, blinding them all as the voice's laughter turned to spine chilling cackles. Owl gasped and grabbed onto Phoenix while a searing pain burned their hands.

"The Monado!" Shulk gasped, he watched as digital lines and codes ripped the famous blade from his hands, the same blade that had helped defeated countless Mechon and monsters back home and wrapped it in a tidy bow.

 **"There!"** The pain faded and they watched as the sword gently floated back into Shulk's possession, he uttered a strangled scream when he noticed that the symbol that stood for Buster, his most powerful stat boost was replaced with the codes that probably stood for something evil. " **This should keep you in check Mr. I can see the future like a… A… Er…"** The voice trailed off as he struggled to find the right word. Finally it huffed and asked, **"What is a somewhat awesome word that goes with when you're a super show off but really good at your job?"**

They blinked before Lucina offered meekly, "A boss? Or a pro." Phoenix looked at Lucina who shrugged, "It asked a question. I just answered it."

"Right, as I was saying! This should keep you in check Mr. I can see the future like a boss…! That sounded a lot cooler in my head now that I think about…"

The voice trailed of once more before it snapped, **"Forget this! Or however that term goes! Ugh! Internet is partially useless! Good bye!"**

They yelped as the vision officially ended and yanked their hands away from the sword, inspecting their hands for any damage. Lucina gasped and carefully traced the burned scar with her finger, "It… It looks like a butterfly." Shulk gulped and carefully put his sword back in its sheath, "Who was that?" Owl ran a hand through his white hair and yawned, "No clue. But he must have been powerful if he managed to do that to us in a vision." They silently agreed with that and studied their hands. Horrified about the weird butterfly scar.

"Wait," Owl looked at Shulk who tiredly asked, "What is it now?"

"Didn't you say the Monado could show the future?" Shulk nodded and tried to figure out where Owl was heading with this, "Yes, that's correct although once, I've gotten a vision from the past. But that might have been because someone was trying to warn me about what might happen in our timeline."

"Do you think that someone was also trying to warn us as well?" Lucina asked, "By re-sending that past vision along with those two new ones?"

Shulk frowned, "Perhaps, but now we need to be on the lookout for a Newcomer. He may or may not have some clues about what's going on."

"True, but first." Lucina stifled a yawn and rubbed her eyes, "We should probably avoid heading to the library and get some sleep." Owl, Phoenix and Shulk groaned but agreed, and they headed back to the hallway of rooms when they bumped into Samus and Sheik who were carrying a tray of muffins and drinks.

"Sorry! We were lost in our thoughts as usual." Shulk sheepishly grinned and studied the tray, there were four drinks and four muffins. "Oh that's okay!" Samus chirped, Lucina and Phoenix edged away a little, they still weren't use to the fact that Samus, who was a bounty hunter with a hardcore back story acted so cheerful yet serious, unlike the stoic and cold Zero who often had trouble making friends

. It was even more unnerving when you realize that Samus was nearly seen as a robot since she was a metal suit of armor. "We're just glad to see you four awake!"

"Awake?" Owl looked at Shulk who voiced his question, "What do you mean, 'glad to see we're awake?'" Samus frowned, or it seemed to frown since they couldn't read facial expression on the suit and Sheik quietly explained, "We found you four in the park, slumped over Shulk's sword. We tried to wake up but you didn't respond. So we headed over to Mr. Game and Watch's café in hopes that the smell of food would wake you up."

"And if that didn't work then we planned on dumping the juice down your night clothes." They all took a step back from Samus who laughed. "I was kidding!"

"You didn't sound like you were kidding when you told me your little plan." Shiek mumbled, Samus laughed again and glared at Sheik who sighed and offered the muffin tray to Lucina, "Get some rest, you all look like you fought an army of Redeads." They gave her blank looks before Owl asked, "What's a Redead?" Shiek looked down and mumbled, "I'm… Not sure…" Samus frowned and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"That's actually why we found you, we were kinda of hoping to ask you two a question." Owl and Phoenix exchanged looks, trying to gauge what question Shiek would have for them. After all she was somewhat of a Smash veteran, "What kind of question Sheik?" Sheik looked away, "It can wait, it was nothing important." Phoenix reached out to hold Sheik's hand in hopes of coxing the question out of the ninja.

Sheik yanked her hand away and responded by swiftly throwing Phoenix to the ground and jumping backward, hand hovering over her needles.

"Oww…" Phoenix groaned, Sheik winched when she realized what she had done, "I'm sorry! I'm just… What I mean to say…" Sheik falutred and looked away, ashamed with her actions. "Don't worry… I've faced worse." Phoenix whimpered, trying to act like she wasn't in pain from the attack. "Yea! It's not that bad!" Samus grinned and pointed at herself, "You've thrown me around and I'm not mad!" Shiek blinked before disappearing a cloud of smoke.

"I don't think that was the encouragement that Sheik was looking for." Owl said, "What? I don't get what was wrong with what I said." Samus sighed and shoved the tray of drinks into Shulk's hands who yelped when the drinks splashed onto his favorite red jacket.

"Oh well, time to play find the ninja." Samus strolled away looking around the café before heading into the train station. "Let's go to bed before anything else happens." Phoenix groaned. Owl helped her up and they quickly headed to their rooms.


	3. Chapter 3, The Newcomer Approches?

**Yes! I have finally figured out how to make author notes! ^-^ except now I have no reason to avoid saying the copyright thingy. Oh well, all characters belong to their proper owner and not me.**

* * *

"Perfect." His voice echoed in the empty chamber as a smile graced his lips, "Everything… Is perfect." He slowly made his way to the exit relishing his master plan, a master plan which he had re-drilled into each of his soldiers after they discovered that they had more than a meager army to fight. Instead of rushing in they had to wait since no one knew the exact size of the army.

Plan, and spy on those pesky Smashers slowly, oh so slowly-,

"Master!" He looked at the bottom of the steps, for once pleased that someone had interrupted his planning. "After all," he thought, "That must mean that Area A, has left."

As the man expected, his solider. The only person he truly could call a soldier saluted and said, "3 Rehtom and the Spark Squad have just left, their estimated time should be an hour or more before we can get some visuals."

"Perfect." He purred, he happily skipped down the rest of the stairs… Or tried to since he promptly tripped over his robe yelped and tumbled down the rest of the stairs. Landing at the feet of his prized solider who snickered as his Master angrily muttered viruses and codes at the towering staircase.

"Perhaps you should take it as a sign to redesign your staircase?"

He sent the man a withering glare and snapped, "Silence! There is nothing wrong with my staircase! So shut up!"

"Yes Master."

With a quiet huff, he brushed himself off and briskly headed to the control room, "We have a slight change in plans Reptile."

"Oh? Not anything major right?" Master sent a glare at the being he called Reptile and snapped his fingers, right on cue Glacier and Hammer joined him, Hammer carrying a notepad while Glacier carried a tape recorder.

"Twins, please tell Reptile the small changes that have happened overnight." Glacier flipped a couple pages and read aloud, "Four Smashers, newbies to be exact have somehow managed to see a small step backward and forward of our plan, we fear that he may or may not attack 3 Rehtom if they spot him." She beamed a pleased smile at their Master who nodded his approval.

"And this is a problem why?" Reptile asked, "Surely you disabled what little power they had to see into the future." Master sent another glare his way, knowing that Reptile was mocking him. "As you know." He snarled, "I can't do anything damaging to the newbies since there codes are completely brand new and I am unfamiliar with their data."

Reptile bit back his sneer and was about to ask something else when Master hissed, "Quiet!" they froze as the Master glared at up the tile ceiling, a cheery grin appeared, replacing his brief frown as he clapped his hands with glee, "Goodie! There nearly there! Soon we shall have some access to that remembered world!" he skipped off humming a distorted tune while his loyal soldiers watched.

"You know," Glacier mused, "For an all-powerful creature…"

"He sure can act childish." Hammer finished, Reptile growled lightly, "I really hate these code-names." The twins glared at him and went back to their room, "Just hope that 3 Rehtom can finish his mission."

* * *

"Breath in… Breath out… Breath in… Breath out…" 3 Rehtom muttered, trying to calm his jittery nerves. He was terrified, not because he could possible wreck the only chance they got to send their only spy who could go undercover without too much fear of being discovered. But because someone might had seen him.

He gasped, feeling light headed even though he had plenty of air. But still, the rush of adrenal, the roaring whistles that came from the subway train and their only victim that rolled around in the third car.

He was petrified. "But… I have to do this! For Mast- no… wait… I have to do this for Father." The small boy smiled as he remembered that one slip up, that one slip of the tongue that had landed him a new father. He could still remember the moment too.

Even though last night had mostly been a blur between packing, preparing and ensure that him and the Spark squad could work the tiny tools they were given.

He closed his eyes, reliving the moment. It had been a simply day, first the entire army had gone out to attack until they realized that they were gravely outnumbered and would have to resort to a sneak attack. Then the entire day had been turned upset down. Literary since their Master threw a tantrum that he had still been forgotten and accidently turned their base, their home upside down.

After he had calmed down he had summoned Glaicer, Hammer, the Spark Squad, Mask and himself into his throne room. "Due to a major change in plans since some people deicide to add oh, I dunno an ARMY OF FREAKING SMASHERS into the mix, we shall have to go back to Plan A." he stopped pacing and grinned at the tiny warriors.

"But luckily, since they had deiced to keep expanding their fighters with those annoying Downloadable content it gives us a perfect chance to sneak in. Or at least, to let you sneak in 3." 3 Rehtom flinched and pointed to himself. Hoping that his Master had meant someone else, "Yes, you 3." His Master smiled down at him, "You're the only one who can pose as a fighter." 3 Rehtom squeaked and stammered.

"B-b-but I don't think I'm ready Fath- Master!" everyone sent him a look of horror as their Master froze, his bright teal and blue eyes dimming slightly. A clear sign that he was slowly 3 starting to get angry.

"What… Did you call me, 3?" 3 Rehom gulped and trembled like a leaf, "I said I don't think I'm ready Master."

"You said something else before addressing me as your master." 3 Rehtom paled as he squeaked, "I-I called you Father."

"I see…" Their Master slowly bent down to 3 Rehtom's eye level, his eyes still dim and dark, 3 Rehtom flinched as his Master gently tilted his face upward to properly make eye contact. "And what is a Father?" 3 Rehtom stammered but could barely get his voice above squeaking level, Mask answered for him since the poor boy looked ready to keel over.

"A father, is usual a person who raises his children with love and care in hopes of seeing them bloom and become fully grown adults, they have a bit of tough love while mothers are somewhat easier to deal with when it comes to personal questions." Mask looked away and pulled his cap down. The Master hmmed softly and returned his attention back to 3 Rehtom, "I see… And why did you call me, 'Father'?"

"B-b-because I s-see you as a Fatherly figure. W-w-hen ever we g-get into trouble you don't punish us as badly as you do Howler and Reptile." 3 Rehtom gulped and waited for whatever scolding he would receive. "3, open your eyes." He dutifully did as he was told and was surprised to see his Master smiling warmly at him, "Well, then if you see me as I father, I shall try my best to act like a father when your around."

He blinked as their Master stood up and looked around the room, studying the shocked faces that watched him, "Did all of you see me as I father?" Mask slowly raised his hand, looking slightly mortified, "You… Sort of remind me of my caretaker."

"Well, you did sneak us some cookies after dinner…" Hammer mumbled, "And offered us a bedtime book when we couldn't sleep." Glaicer added, Master looked at the Spark Squad who were giggling about something. "Well?" They jumped and put their stubby hands behind their backs grinning as if they had done nothing wrong.

"We just see you as our Pokemon trainer!" They said, Master raised an eyebrow, not understand how he could be a Pokemon Trainer when they already had a fighter called that, "Okay then…?" he smiled and clapped his hands, "Well, with that out of the way, anyone have any ideas to ensure that our plan can't possibly fail?"

3 Rehtom smiled as the memory ended, and with that ended all of his homesickness, the pain of losing his twin brother and his mother who had been murdered. It also ended the longing for his father and friends since he was surrounded by new friends and siblings.

His smile grew wider as he remembered his wish, a wish he was going to complete along with his mission, "Pssst!" 3 Rehtom looked at his suitcase and saw Adventure, poke his head out he looked around before quietly asking "Are we there yet?"

3 Rehtom looked at the line above the train door and frowned, they still have at least an hour to go before they reached their destination. "Not even close." The suitcase groaned and Pirate poked his head out, scowling. "I still say we shoulda took a ship! I ain't no landlubber!"

"You are too!" Sky argued,

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"I'm an adventure!" Adventure screeched interrupting the argument. Pirate and Sky glared at their comrade before bursting out laughing, 3 Rehtom smiled as the hide themselves back in the suitcase joking about something.

* * *

It was a quiet morning every fighter was asleep dreaming peacefully about new adventures or past memories. The only creature that stirred was Mr. Game n Watch, the 2-D fighter who was happily chirping, beeping and making soft alarm sounds as he rearranged his café.

He was proud to be doing something helpful for once instead of being overly annoying to the other fighters and cooking was one of his favorite hobbies. Along with waking people up with his alarm bell.

He chuckled darkly before resuming his work of moving tables around, writing up a new special and menu and sweeping. When he finished he grinned and was about to walk down the hallway to wake up Ike when a loud warning alarm sounded from the large TV.

Mr. Game n Watch screeched in horror as doors swung open and confused and drowsy fighters rushed to his café, wanting to figure out what danger they were in. the poor 2-d fighter nearly got trampled and was forced to flatten himself against the wall.

"What's going on?" Link asked, trying his best to seem awake, "Mama mia! Are we under attack?" Mario looked around and summoned a fireball prepared to attack. Confused and angry murmurs filled the rooms as everyone tried to wake up, or try to find the enemy.

"A NEW CHALLENGER APPROCHES!" A voice boomed. The room went silent before a buzzing of curiosity and wonder replaced the murmurs. "I wonder who it is."

"Maybe it's a gunner!"

"I wonder if they like to kidnapping people."

Peach glared at Bowser who had questioning smirk on his maw, and slapped him. Then stormed over to Mario was throwing around ideas with Diddie Kong, the only Kong who could speak English and Luigi who was praying that it wasn't a Boo.

Game n Watch groaned and fought the crowd to get to his small café counter, wanting to hide in a cupboard until it was quiet. He was surprised to see Shulk, Phoenix, Owl and Lucina already seated looking worried about something. He ignored them and happily chirped as he locked himself in the cupboard.

"Hey! Maybe they finally decided to let Tails join!" Sonic suggested, Gannondorf overheard and sneered, "Why would they let that two tailed freak in?" Sonic glared at him and calmly retorted, "The same reason why they let a failing wizard who's been defeated many times in."

"Burn!" Roy jeered, Marth frowned and smacked Roy in the back of the head, "Like you can talk flame man." Roy laughed and rubbed his head. "Maybe they brought the Pokémon Trainer back." Lucario offered, Charizard frowned and stretched his wings nearly hitting Greninja and Mewtwo in the head, "They couldn't have, unless they brought a new trainer in."

"Why couldn't they bring the Pokémon Trainer in?" Greninja asked, "He sounds pretty cool from what Pikachu told me." Charizard glared at the frog and stormed off, fuming.

Greninja's tongue formed a small question mark, confused as what had set Charizard' fuse alight, "He has trouble talking about the Pokémon Trainer since, well. He used to be in his Pokémon team." Lucario explained, he sighed and watched as the Villagers scatter trying to avoid the angry fire/flying type Pokémon,

"So I guess this means we have to avoid him for a while." Goggles sighed and glanced at Headband, "What? I wasn't going to prank him!" Headband looked away while Lady, a fancy Pikachu who wore a trainer's hat from Kalos and Hiro, a Pikachu who wore a Japanese style headband approached them.

"Maybe there bringing Champion Diana!" Lady squealed, Hiro frowned and shook his head no, Hiro didn't speak a lot he preferred to simply shake his head yes and no. Saving his voice for important matters.

"Pfff if anything there bring back Pichu!" Red Cap said, Wizard gasped and clapped his hands, his blue wizard hat (It was really a party hat but the Pikachus refused to call it anything but a wizard's hat) nearly slipping off his head, "That would be awesome!" Lady and Hiro tilted their heads, "Why would Pichu be here?" Lady asked, Wizard was about to explain but decided not to, "He's just an old friend."

"I wonder where the newcomer's going to stay." Zelda mused, Zero yawned and rubbed her eyes, "Meh, he or she will probably just spend the night with their fellow friends."

Paltuna giggled. "You seem excited about this."

Zero grumbled something about wishing to be back in bed while Pit and Dark Pit pondered over possible newcomers, "Maybe it's Virdi." Pit suggested Dark Pit glowered at his copy and snapped, "She already has a spot remember? She haunts that stupid temple of yours." Pit grinned sheepishly while Dark Pit angrily scanned the room.

Probably trying to figure out where Treeleaf was hiding. But in the crowd and the babble of excitement, he was really wishing that he had ignored that stupid siren and stayed in bed. "I wonder who should greet the newcomer." Samus mused, "I know!" Peach clapped her hands and twirled her dainty umbrella, "we should throw them a welcome party!"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Luigi said, "But… How can we throw them a welcome party if we don't even know who they are?"

"I say, we use race cars. Everyone likes race cars!" Captain Falcon suggested, everyone ignored him since he was obsessed with his race car, even more so than the Koopalings. "I say we place bob-ombs around the train station door." Iggy cackled, Iggy was a bit insane and somewhat of an annoying jerk so people tended to steer clear of him except for his siblings they put up with him.

"But then you'll blow us up stupid!" Roy (The koopaling, not Roy from Fire Emblem) shoved Iggy who tottered for a bit before falling to the ground giggling. "Well, if we use those mine bombs then we shouldn't get blown up." Ludwig pointed out.

"Or, we could hurl a bunch of bouncy balls at him when he gets off the train!" Lemmy suggested.

"What if this he is a girl huh?" Wendy snapped, she twirled her hoop sized bracelet with a pink tipped claw and scowled at her brothers. "It could very well be a girl!" Larry happily agreed since he wasn't in the mood to get slapped while Bowser Jr. argued, "Oh please! They don't let girls fight this is a-uh man's job!"

"But what if it's a pretty girl?" Morton asked, "Like Zero." Roy scowled at him and shoved him too, only he didn't fall to the ground like Iggy since he was bigger. "Shut up stupid!"

"Who ya calling stupid, dummy!"

"You take that back!"

"Make me!" everyone quickly stepped away from the Koopalings who began brawling each other while Bowser ignored them (As usual) and focused on his argument with King Dedede who was surprisingly getting Kirby's help in the argument, even though Kirby happily danced around saying what little words he knew.

Finally when the noise became a bit much someone jumped up on the table and shouted, "QUIET!" Surprisingly everyone shut up and looked at the table and were even more surprised to see a purple clothed Toon Link standing beside a Toon Link in blue who was angrily scowling at everyone. A green Toon Link and a Red Toon Link were standing behind the table with Ness.

"Thank you Blue," The purple Toon Link cleared his throat and said, "Now I understand that you are all excited about meeting the newcomer, but how do you think he'll react to meeting a hyped crowd of people the moment he steps off the train?"

"He'll probably pull a Mewtwo." Link said, Mewtwo glared at him and snapped, "Why does everyone call my arrival a Mewtwo!?"

"Because you were the only one to freak out and attack us." Mario said, winching slightly as he remembered getting hit the most. Mewtwo scowled and grumbled, "You would attack too if you were just meet with a crowd of people."

Turnip, a Villager who was wearing a turnip top stepped forward, "Maybe we should do what our neighbors did when we first became mayor." Tie-Dye yawned and rubbed his eyes, "I remember that, Isabella and three other villagers greeted me at the train station when I first moved in."

"So we pick four people to greet the newcomer and that will get us a chance to prepare for a surprise party." Marth glanced at Peach who nodded her head yes, her blue eyes sparkling "And a chance for the newcomer to meet everyone at a slow pace until its party time."

"That sounds like an awesome idea!" Falco raised his hand in the air, "I claim cooking the party favors!" Mr. Game n Watch screeched a line of bell rings and error noise while Peach, the only person who Mr. Game n Watch didn't really bother along with Sheik gently scolded him, Peach also appeared to be the only person who understood what he was saying.

Soon Link and Mario had set up a volunteer area in the café while Captain Falcon and Yoshi picked the four lucky people to greet the newcomer. In the end, they had Ness, Jigglypuff, Zelda and Little Mac. Everyone else was either helping out with the party or running around doing last minute checks on certain areas of the realm of Smash Bros.

Toon Link was helping Peach out by carrying some heavy boxes that felt as light as a Boomerang thanks to his bracelet which gave him the strength to pick up heavier objects. Although he was slightly weirded out by the three other Toon Links who were also trying to help out, they were working together to carry one box full of party stuff.

Toon Link tried to ignore them and thought of a soothing melody his grandmother used to sing to him whenever he had nightmares when one of the Links, Red he had called himself chirped, "I'm so glad that were back and about!"

"Shut up Red." Blue grunted, trying his best not to drop the heavy box on his foot. Red pouted, "But didn't you miss all of us working as a team again?" Blue was about to say something else when Toon Link finally gave into his curiosity, "Who are you guys?" He turned around to face his doppelgangers who seemed surprised by his question, "You guys just show up outta nowhere and act like we're the best of pals."

They gawked him for a moment before Blue declared, "Okay, he's lost his mind." Toon Link blinked at him for a couple minutes, "Huh?"

"You don't remember our adventures? Where we defeated Vaati and helped people out along the way?" Red asked, when Toon Link didn't respond Red sniffled and looked like was ready to cry, Blue groaned and inched forward, his arms aching from having to hold the heavy box.

"Perhaps we should start interrogating each other after we've dropped these supplies off at the party?" the purple Toon Link suggested,

"Oh right." Toon Link picked up speed and marched toward the party room where the girls were busy using their magic to change the colors of certain decorations, trying to see which color looked best in the white room. Gannondorf was happily changing the bright and cheery colors the girls chose to a dark and evil shade of blacks and reds.

Palutena and Zelda had already chewed him out about this before they resumed their coloring changing again, only for Gannondorf to switch it back to dark and menacing.

No one payed to much attention to Toon Link, Lady pointed over to a corner while she, Chibi, Treeleaf, Turnip and Rugby made paper dolls of certain items.

"Alright, remind me to never help out those princesses again." Blue groaned, "Aw cheer up!" Red chirped, "It wasn't that bad!" Blue glared at him and huffed, "Easy for you to say, you weren't carrying most of the weight!" Red deflated slightly and deiced to watch Toon Link pace around his room. Trying to figure out what question to ask first.

"Perhaps we should start by asking about our adventures, since you don't seem to remember us." Purple suggested, Toon Link agreed even though he felt like an idiot for not asking it sooner, "Alright, did you guys even sail on a boat for transportation?"

They gave him blank looks before Blue started complaining, "You got a boat!? We had to walk all over the place!"

"Why did you need a boat?" Red asked, that made Toon Link gave them a blank look, why the heck wouldn't he need a boat? There was no other way to travel between islands unless you were a Rito and they were graced with the ability to fly. "Why wouldn't I? The only way to travel between islands was with a boat."

"What are you talking about? There's no islands!" Blue scoffed, Purple however said nothing although he was slightly frowning.

"My turn!" Red cheerfully waved his hand in the air before asking, "Did you ever use a Rod of Fire? It became my favorite weapon after I lost my sword!"

"Rod of… Fire?" Toon Link tilted his head, he figured it was a rod that shot flames, but why would he even need an item like that when he had fire arrows, "Wait, you lost your sword?!" Red cheerfully nodded and frowned a bit, "I forgot how I lost it, but I know I wasn't trying to lose it on purpose!"

"But how were you suppose to fight and seal evil when you lost the Master Sword?!" Toon Link put a hand to his head, his mind spinning even though he had a feeling he had barely scratched the surface of the doppelgangers past. "Don't freak, Vio and I lost our swords too, but we got along just fine with my trusty hammer and Vio used his bow and arrows. He was actually better at shooting than slashing." Blue glanced at 'Vio' who nodded in agreement.

"It's true, our Green. The original Link you might say, was the only one who kept a piece of the four sword before we found ours to defeat Vaati. We used the power of the six maidens to help us."

"Four… Sword?" Vio nodded and launched into a brief explanation, "You see, our story starts with Princess Zelda, our Link's friend heading to the Four Swords Shrine with him to ensure that the seal that was keeping Vaati sealed was still intact, it wasn't. He kidnapped her and Link was forced to pull the Four Sword which spilt him into three other people."

He paused while Toon Link pieced everything together, he hated to admit but he wasn't very good at quickly understanding large amounts of information.

He usually relied on Terta and the Red King to help him remember once he got out of a dungeon to help him to next place he needed to go, "So you three, are a part of a completely different Link?" Vio nodded, "Yes, we each hold one of his traits and personality since we are still tenquinlly the same person." He pointed at Blue who glowered at him, "Blue is hot headed and a reckless fighter, preferring to attack first and ask questions later."

"I do not!" Blue snapped.

Vio ignored him and kept talking, "He has a soft side despite acting so brash." He pointed to Red who was happily examining some of Toon Link's pictures from his adventures. "Red is mostly cheerful and childish, always able to look on the bright side even when things look dire."

Red looked up grinning, "Wow! It must have been amazing to live near the sea! We lived in Zelda's castle working as the guards. So we didn't get to explore that much before we had to save the world."

"And Vio." Blue glared at the purple Link who sighed and waited for Blue's description, "Is a smart aleck who prefers to keep to himself and rub the fact that he comes up with better plans and avoids danger like a pro."

"Well, if you take the time to look around for clues when you know full well that we are in enemy territory we wouldn't have to waste our healing potions." Vio muttered.

"Shut up!" Blue snapped.

"Don't worry!" Red chirped, "Even though Vio seems cold and distance, he's great at making friends!" he looked at Vio who sighed and nodded his head in agreement.

"So I'm guessing that your Link was sort of the balance between you three?" Toon Link asked, Vio nodded, "In a way, he was our leader." Blue grumbled, "Not mine." Once again, Vio ignored him, "We did question his actions sometimes but not as much as they questioned mine. So it became evened out."

"Who questioned your actions?" Toon Link was expecting them to say a local town or random rumors that showed them in a bad light, instead he got no answer but uncomfortable glances between themselves.

"Any way our turn to ask a question." Blue looked Toon Link right in the eye, "Did you know Zelda growing up?" Toon Link shook his head no.

"I first met her when she fell out of the Helmaroc King's clutches. She crashed landed on my island, Outset Island and I rescued her from the little forest we had, after that Helmaroc King mistook my little sister as her and I started off on an adventure to recuse her from Gannondorf."

He paused and fingered the blue stone that Tetra had used to give him warnings when he was attempting to save all the girls Gannon had kidnapped.

"I didn't even know she was Zelda, I knew her as Tetra, captain of a bunch of pirates who gave me a ride on her ship from time to time before I met the King of Red Lions. I still didn't know who she was until we headed to the submerged castle of Hyrule."

"Wow. You had a little sister?" Toon Link nodded and Red sulked a little, "I always wanted to have a younger sibling," Blue ignored him and asked, "The Helmaroc King wouldn't happen to be a giant bird wearing a huge mask would it?"

"Exactly, I had to flee the first time I met it and fight it the second time I returned." Vio frowned, "Interesting…" Toon Link frowned as well as he sensed that they too had fought the giant bird. But if they did then they probably killed it, like he had done.

"Soo what was up with the mistrust?" Toon Link asked, deiced to save the bird question for later. Once again they gave each other uncomfortable glances before Vio sighed and once again began to explain, "You see, there was a fifth Link besides us." Toon Link's eyes widen in surprise, "But I thought you said there were only four because of the four sword!"

"We did, the fifth Link, was made from our shadows with the help of a magic mirror that Vaati and Gannondorf were planning on using to form an army with, the fifth Link was called Shadow Link, he looked nothing like us, and preferred to pull underhanded tricks and used us to weaken the four sword by separating us from each other. He was as skilled as us when it came to swordplay as well. Making him a dangerous foe to deal with even without his dark magic." Vio paused and looked away, forcing Blue to pick up the story.

"He was also smart, after he separated us, we lost our swords and weakened the little bond we had forged, and it got even worse when Vio supposedly joined his side, tricked us and 'killed' Green to prove it." Toon Link gasped as Red took over the story telling, "It wasn't so bad though! Vio helped us vanished Vaati!"

"But we wouldn't have been able to do it if Shadow hadn't sacrifice himself by destroy the mirror, one of Gannon's sources of power. He was the real master mind behind it all." Vio mumbled,

"So… He was a good guy all along?" Toon Link felt his stomach drop when they nodded yes,

"He wasn't really evil in a way, he just wanted attention. He was tired of being a shadow, ignored, alone and unappreciated, he just wanted to be a hero." Vio sighed and fixed his hat which was slowly slipping off. Toon Link said nothing as he tried to understand the story, he didn't have long to think since a loud siren screamed, "THE NEW COMER IS HERE!"

Blue growled and covered his ears, "Why does that thing have to be so loud!" Red winched and mumbled, "To make us all deaf… Which isn't very nice!" Vio simply sighed and helped the dazed Toon Link up, who had fallen off his bed in surprise from the annuched , "We'll talk later, it seems your needed at the party."

"R-right."

* * *

"Do you see the train yet?" Ness leaned forward while Jigglypuff bounced around waiting for his answer, "No, not yet." Jigglypuff deflated slightly and went back to bouncing on the bench, "It won't be that long Jigglypuff," Jigglypuff scowled at Zelda who was knitting a scarf to pass the time, "Will too." Ness laughed and joined Jigglypuff and watched Little Mac practice his boxing, "1 2 3, 1 2 3" he muttered as he punched the air and ducked in rhythm.

"You know, for a guy who's the best of the boxing. He sure failed at hitting anyone in Brawl." Jigglypuff noted, "True, but at least he's making up for it here." Zelda said, she frowned as she dropped a stitch, "Not again!"

Ness and Jigglypuff laughed while Zelda ignored them and tried to fix her error. Little Mac finally stopped shadowing boxing and did a couple stretches "I wonder how the party preparations are going." Jigglypuff thought for a while before giggling, "Palutena probably decided to tie Gannondorf up since he was ruining the colors." Little Mac raised an eye brow, "How was he ruining the colors for the party?"

"He kept changing to bright and colorful colors we picked and turned them into dark colors that you would see on an enemy banner." Zelda shudder as she remembered the red spots on their baby blue tablecloth, it reminded her of blood.

"The train's here!" Ness jumped off the bench and watched as the train pulled into the subway, stopped and the doors slid open. "I wonder who it's going to be!" Little Mac bounced on his feet while Zelda smoothed her hair, preparing herself to greet the visitor like she would back home. They waited for what felt like hours before Jigglypuff asked, "So is the person invisible man?" Little Mac frowned and did a few quick jabs, "I don't think so, maybe he fell asleep on the way here?"

Ness was about to suggest that they head inside to make sure that the newcomer was even on the train when a timid voice squeaked, "I-I'm here." And a small figure stepped out of the train, carrying a small suitcase, "Lucas!" Ness tackled the boy in a hug who yelped in surprise but didn't shove Ness off of him.

"Welcome back Lucas." Zelda smiled warmly at him who blushed in embarrassment, "H-hello Zelda, Jigglypuff." Jigglypuff happily spun in a circle, "Alright! We got a Brawl member!"

"Um… Okay…" Lucas edged away from the cheerful puffball only to bump into Little Mac who was dragging his suitcase over the yellow safety line, "Hey Lucas! Remember me?" Little Mac's grin faded when Lucas asked, "Joe Boxer? What are you doing here?"

"My name's Little Mac." He grumbled, a bit annoyed since everyone for Brawl had called him Joe Boxer a couple times.

Ness quickly changed the subject by offering to show Lucas his room before Little Mac could complain some more, along the way they bumped into Charizard and Greninja, Lucas happily greeted Charizard and hide behind Ness when Greninja jumped down from the ceiling.

"So, you're the newcomer, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Greninja." Greninja extended a webbed hand which Lucas shook, trembling in terror, "Nice to meet you." He stammered. Ness placed a comforting hand on Lucas's shoulder and attempted to calm him down, "It's alright, Greninja's just a Pokémon. Like Charizard."

Greninja nodded and playfully punched Charizard, "Besides, I'm not going to attack you, especially if Charizard's aro-," faster than Ness could react, Chariard who had been glaring at a random poster in the café faced Greninja and used flamethrower, sending the frog like Pokémon running trying to put out the lingering flames.

"See ya later Charizard!" Ness weakly chuckled as Charizard stormed off, once again causing the Villagers to once again scatter and for Treeleaf to drop her ice cream, she angrily yelled at Charizard who ignored her and Turnip who was trying not to cry.

"Did I do something wrong?" Ness jumped a little, momentarily forgetting about Lucas standing behind him, "No! You did nothing wrong, Charizard's just a bit grumpy that's all!" Lucas frowned and fiddled with a luggage tag. "You don't have to lie…"

"I'm not lying! we were all woken up by the loud challenger approaches signal. That's all!" Ness lead Lucas away and cheerfully said, "Let's just focus on finding your room, okay?" Lucas gave a small smile and nodded his head.

They spent a good hour looking around for a door with bright red lettering that showed where Lucas's room was. Ness tried his best to cheerfully reassure Lucas as they walked up and down the long hallway as Lucas paled whenever he saw the names of people he never knew about. Mostly the newbies to the Smash tournament and the DLC fighters.

"S-so how many fighters are there all together then?" Lucas asked, dreading the answer. "65, 34 from Brawl 18 new characters plus 2 since Roy and Mewtwo were from Melee, the DLC characters and 8 if you count the new color costumes since now we can have different genders or people depending on the fighter." Ness glanced back at Lucas who nearly tripped over his own shoes, his face pale.

"T-that's a lot of people." He squeaked. "Don't worry! Everyone's friendly, expect the Kooplalings but that's because their Bowser's kids." Ness looked forward and frowned as they still saw no sign of Lucas's room, or the room he was sharing. "Well, looks like you're staying with me for the night."

He led Lucas to his slightly messy room and pushed some random notes, pictures and trophies he had collected off the spare bed, "Here! This can be your bed." Lucas smiled and placed his suitcase on the still somewhat messy bed.

Ness quickly shoved some dirty clothes and pajamas under his bed while Lucas placed his rope snake (Who he called Jaws just to be nice since the Rope snake had tried his best to be the best help he could be before he decided to be a worm.) on his bed and allowed it to slither about before it crawled up Lucas's arm and back into his pants pocket.

"Need any help unpacking?" Ness asked once he was sure that must of his stuff was hidden, he was surprised by Lucas's brisk, "No thank you." Ness choose to ignore it for the moment and tried again, "It's no trouble after all, the more hands you have helping the faster it gets done." He stepped forward and was about to unzip it when Lucas slapped his hand away and snarled, "I said no!"

Ness took a step back, a bit startled by this new side of Lucas, the usually quiet and reserved boy with a tragic backstory. He also could have sworn that he saw a look of malice in his eyes which was impossible since they both had black cartoony eyes. It vanished the moment it had appeared, "I'm sorry!" Lucas tackled Ness in a hug starting him even more, "It's just the-,"

"It's alright, it's my fault for pushing the question." Ness gently pushed Lucas away who looked ready to cry, "How about I show you around, okay?"

"That would be great! I can't wait to see the new stages!" Ness laughed as Lucas dragged him down the hallway, when they reached the café Lucas froze and searched his pockets, "Is something wrong?" Lucas, looked up and sheepishly smiled at Ness, "I-I forgot my camera, I wanted to take a few pictures as a reminder. It's in my suitcase, I'll be right back!" Ness watched as Lucas ran back to their room, narrowly crashing into Olimar and Alph who jumped out of the way.

"Wow! He sure seems to be in a hurry!" Alph noted, Ness bit his tongue trying not to laugh at Alph's squeaky voice or the fact that he regularly joked to be the captain, Olimar silently nodded and patted a skittish yellow Pikmin's head, trying to calm it down before it let loose some dangerous sparks.

"He just forgot his camera Alph, nothing to really be in a hurry about." Alph stuck his tounge out at Ness who rolled his eyes, "Well, I'm going to say hello! Onward Pikmin!" Alph ran after Lucas with some pink flying Pikmin and Rock Pikmin who were just rocks with Pikmin eyes and limbs following close behind him.

"Finally…. Made…. It!" Alph gasped, he leaned against the door the best he could with his helmet on and took a couple gulps of sweet Koppia air, his home planet.

When he finally could breathe easily he couldn't help but overhear some voices, "That's odd, I thought Lucas was by himself…" Alph mumbled he fished out a small pair of headphones and placed a small device on the door, he proudly examined his work while he listened to Lucas's conversation.

"Man!" A squeaky voice exclaimed, it reminded Alph of Pikachu, only younger, "Master sure isn't going to like this!" Lucas shushed the voice, "Shh! We can't let anyone know-," he was cut off by a second squeaky voice that had a slight pirate accent, or an attempt of a pirate accent.

"Arrggh, we get it! Stay hidden while you go be buddy-buddy, no need to worry about us landlubber."

"You're a landlubber too Pirate." A third squeaky voice pointed out, "Am not!" Pirate snapped, Lucas shushed them once more and pulled something out of a compartment, "You four are impossble to take on a secret mission."

"Heeey!" A fourth squeaky voice whined, "I am an adventure! Therefore I am perfect to take on serect missions!" Lucas sighed and Alph heard something zip close, he ignored it as Lucas dropped his voice to a whisper, "Just try and find some weak points alright? I'll be setting up these cameras." Alph waited for him to say more but didn't hear anything besides understanding sighs, he yelped when the door opened and sent him stumbling into Ness's room his listening device smacked him in the back of the helmet as it pulled off the door.

Lucas gasped and quickly closed the door, locked it and spun around to face Alph who gulped and laughed sheepishly, "Yo! I'm… Captain Alph." He had expected a shy reply from Lucas who he had heard was quiet timid around strangers, instead his heart froze as Lucas scowled down at him.

"Don't you know it's not polite to snoop?" Alph gulped but bravely shot back, "And don't you know it's not polite to plot world domination with your-," He glanced over to Lucas's bed where four creatures were leering at him, he gulped when he noticed the wild hunger in their eyes.

"Friends!?" he finished, Lucas raised an eyebrow and glanced at the one in the pirate get up, "I say we keelhaul him!" he offered, Alph scrambled away and grasped empty air, trying to find the Pikmin he had brought in. He paled when he realized that they were on the other side of the door, which lead to freedom.

He yelped as Lucas whispered an attack and a small dart of fire attacked him, "Hey! Can't we talk this over?!" his answer was no as the four creatures attacked him. "Help! Someone!" Alph scrambled away and knocked over a lamp, it shattered and gave his foes a clear shot of attacking. Alph tried to escape only to be cut off by Lucas who gave him a chilling smile, "Sorry, there's no escape." He leaned forward and juggled a small orb in his hand, "And you're not ruining my only chance of having a new family."

* * *

"Man!" Ness stretched and idly stirred his milkshake with a straw, "I didn't think Lucas packed a mountain of supplies!" Mr. Game n Watched chirped and wiped down his sparkling black counter-top, Sonic laughed and took a handful of smoked peanuts, "Maybe he's trying to hide from all the newbies." He joked, Ness rolled his eyes and took a sip of the vanilla shake, enjoying the cold chill that raced down his spine. He was about to go and get Lucas himself when he stumbled into the counter. Breathing hard.

"Sorry! I ended up turning my whole suitcase upside down to find the dumb thing!" He placed a dainty looking camera on the counter and climbed up on a bright red 80's style stool. "I also knocked over your lamp…" He admitted, Ness waved away Lucas's worry of doing something wrong and offered him a French fry.

"Say, did you meet Alph?" Lucas grinned and nodded his head, "He seemed pretty cool!"

"And annoying?" Sonic teased, Ness once again rolled his eyes and looked at Lucas, "Ignore him, Alph isn't annoying." Lucas nodded in agreement and studied the menu, "Since when did Mr. Game n Watch want to run a café?"

Ness thought for a while before bluntly saying, "I have no idea." Sonic jumped off his stool and did a couple quick stretches, "Well, I'm off to bother Shulk and possibly Duck Hunt," Sonic frowned and growled, "That creep owes me a new pair of sneakers." And with that he sped off, leaving an utterly dumbfounded Lucas behind, "Who are Duck Hunt and Shulk?"

"New fighters." Ness finished his milkshake grinned at Lucas, "Now come! Captain Falcon and Yoshi want to challenge us to a battle later today!" He grabbed Lucas's hand and led him to the garden, Lucas stumbled along for a bit before he managed to match his pace with Ness. Ness was pleased when he saw Lucas look around in awe.

All the flowers seemed to be doing their best to show off their cheery colors and sweet smells, Lucas happily examined small field of golden roses from Animal Crossing while Ness shook an apple tree, also from Animal Crossing.

"Enjoying the flowers?" Lucas jumped and spun around to see the Blue Bomber, Megaman smiling at him, "W-who are you?" Lucas stammered. Ness took a bit out of apple and watched as Megaman laughed and extended his hand out for a handshake, "I'm Megaman, nice to meet you!" Lucas smiled meekly and shook hands, "Nice to meet you too."

"Ah-ha!" Lucas yelped as Megaman was ambushed by Diddy Kong who happily examined Megaman's shooter, "Hey Diddy Kong, DK." Donkey Kong who had been following Diddy Kong grunted a hello and embraced Lucas in a bone crushing monkey hug, "Hi Dk, Diddy." Lucas squeaked.

"Um DK humans aren't supposed to turn blue from your hugs." Ness pointed out, DK yelped and dropped Lucas who gasped and waved off the giant monkey's apogilze, "I'm fine… Just need the sky to stop spinning." Diddy laughed and helped Lucas up, "Nice to see you back in action pal."

"Nice to be back." Lucas dusted himself off while DK and Ness watched Diddy bombard Megaman with questions, "This place is beautiful…" Lucas took a couple pictures before Ness dragged him off to the park, where Kirby, Metaknight and a couple Lumas were playing hide n seek. Rosalina was sitting on a bench happily chatting with Shulk who was repairing a small metal square box.

Lucas was immediately tackled by Kirby who had been hiding poorly behind a tree, "Luca!" Kirby cooed, Lucas blushed and patted the pink puffball, "Hey Kirby. Having fun?" Kirby giggled and somehow managed to drag Lucas into play hide n seek with him and the Lumas.

"Seems like Lucas is quite popular today." Metaknight mused, his eyes glowed a bright blue, while Ness laughed and watched Shulk fiddle with a screw. "So whatcha working on Shulk?"

Shulk didn't even bother to look up, "A space drive which apparently helps keeps her- Ah ha! Found the problem." He pulled out a large star spiked object that Rosalina called a starbit, "Well, that would explain why Verda was acting guilty." Rosalina glanced at the green Luma who pretended to be invisible, it probably would have worked better if it wasn't standing in front of the tree trunk.

Shulk handed her the star-bit and screw the lid back on, "Well, that solves some of the mystery." Shulk stretched and rubbed his eyes which had faint bags under them. Rosalina noticed and asked, "Shulk, what time did you go to sleep?"

"I dunno, probably around 3 in the morning." Shulk yawned and once again rubbed his eyes, "Why do you ask?" Rosalina frowned and began doing what a mother did best, lecture him. "You shouldn't be staying up that late!" Shulk winched and tried to defend himself, "I had some troubling thoughts and I couldn't' sleep,"

"You haven't been tinkering with your Mondao again have you?"

"Well yes, but I had just received-,"

"No excuses! I except you to be in bed around 9:30 young man!"

Shulk opened his mouth to argue but wisely closed it and nodded his head, understanding that there was no way he was getting out of the argument,

Rosalina smiled at him and went to round up the Lumas saying it was nearly time for their nap. "Blimy," Shulk muttered, "I forget how motherly she could be."

"Well, she has a point. You shouldn't be fooling around with trying to upgrade your Monado in the middle of the night." Metaknight paused and said, "Then again, after what happen last night you, Phoenix, Lucina and Owl should probably take it easy." Shulk kneaded his forehead, "That's the reason why I was up! We all apparently passed out when a vision appeared."

Ness raised an eyebrow, he vaguely understood Shulk's ability to see visions but he never complained about passing out after receiving a vison. Shulk noticed the skeptical look they were giving him and sighed, "I've been getting a couple visions lately, weird ones. Last night we saw a vision that showed both the past and the-,"

Shulk's explanation was abruptly cut off by a quick "Incoming!" and getting beaned in the back of the head with a giant apple. "Sowwy!" Kirby rushed over and picked up the giant apple looking embarrassed, Lucas joined him and grinned sheepishly, "We were playing catch with the apple, and I threw it a little bit too hard."

"Blimey you have a good arm!" Shulk groaned, Lucas blushed and went to study his shoelaces, Ness laughed and jumped off the bench prepared to show Lucas the next place on their tour, with a quick goodbye and Lucas once again stumbling behind him they race to the next part of the garden which was a quiet library. Shulk watched them disappear through the oddly placed wooden door that was surrounded by ivy and frowned.

"Is something wrong?" Shulk jumped completely forgetting about Metaknight who was watching him, "Well, before my vision got cut off I'm pretty sure I saw Lucas, but I can't be sure since the whole vision was pretty weird."

"Hmm…" Metaknight watched the door, his eyes a bright green. "I sense… A weird aura around Lucas… Perhaps…."

"Perhaps what?" Shulk leaned forward curious to hear his theory, Metaknight closed his eyes. "Nothing, I'm just over thinking." Disappointed Shulk deiced to head over to the library to meet with Phoenix and Owl who were already trying to figure out what had happened to Wario.

Shulk couldn't help but spy on Ness and Lucas who were meeting Duck Hunt and the female Wii Fit Trainer who was happily giving Lucas fitness tips not caring that Lucas was too busy petting Hunt (That's what they called the dog) who was giving Duck the evil eye for allowing the boy to pet him.

Shulk pretended to be reading a book about Outer Space while trying to shoo that nagging feeling that Lucas was hiding something, "But what? I barely met the kid and already I have doubts about him" Shulk grimaced and put the book away, deciding that he should get the others' thoughts about Lucas before signaling him out.

He turned around and froze, sirens screeched in his head as a battle instinct from his journey around the Mechon and Bionis resurfaced, the feeling that something dangerous had heard or seen him and was ready to kill him.

Shulk turned around trying to resist the urge to pull out the Monado to defend himself when he saw Lucas, still petting Duck Hunt and half listening to Ness and the Wii Fit Trainer's tips but looking right at him, through the small slit of the bookshelves. For a spilt second a flash of pure malice appeared on Lucas's face, disappearing as quickly as it had come as if Shulk had simply imagined it.

Shulk quickly joined Pheonix and Owl who were attempting to figure out who had contacted them and placed the butterfly tattoos on their hands. So far they had no real clue since there was nothing in the library about butterflies since they didn't exist in the Smash World.

"Alright Lucas!" Shulk glanced over his shoulder to see Ness leading Lucas to the next room, "Next up! We're going to meet the Miis'!"

"Who are the Miis'?" Lucas asked, Shulk gulped when Lucas looked at him, the instinct of danger reappearing. "You'll see now come on!" and with that Lucas was dragged away, leaving Shulk slightly relaved.

"Shulk, are you okay?" Shulk jumped, momentarily forgetting that Owl and Phoenix were with him or that they had been asking him a question. "Honestly, I'm not so sure myself." Shulk admitted.

Phoenix and Owl put their books down and studied Shulk who looked perfectly fine despite seeming a little pale, "How can you not be sure? Do you need to visit Doctor Mario again?" Phoenix asked. Owl bit back a knowing grin when he saw his counterpart lean forward a bit, giving Shulk her full attention.

"I think so, but whenever Lucas looks at me, I feel a sense of danger. As if I'm going to be attacked any moment." Shulk sighed and rested his head on his arms, "Maybe Rosalina's right, maybe I do need to head to bed early."

"No it can't be that!" Phoenix protested, she blushed when Peach and Bowser Jr. glanced over at her, surprised at her slight outburst. Owl and Shulk never understood the relationship between Peach and the Koopalings since they were supposed to be the children of Bowser but they never asked for fear of getting a frying pan to the head.

"Er, what I meant to say." Pheonix fiddled with her hair and said, "It can't be that since Owl and I have been in the library all night, and we haven't felt anything strange." Owl nodded in agreement then frowned, realizing something, "But then again, we haven't meet Lucas face to face."

"Neither have I, I was fixing something for Rosalina when Ness brought Lucas to the forest park, so I ignored him until he beaned me in the head with a huge apple." Phoenix and Owl giggled when Shulk said 'beaned' earning an irritated scowl from Shulk, "Will you two stop that!"

"Sorry! Sorry!" Owl snickered and but quickly tried to calm himself, "It's just that you so…"

"Fancy!" Phoenix giggled, Shulk groaned and dropped his head back into his folded arms, "Just because I'm British doesn't mean everything I say is hilarious."

"But it does!" Shulk gave up trying to defend himself after that and told them the odd part about getting hit in the head, Owl had interrupted him asking, "How is getting Beaned-," cue more quiet snickers and giggles "odd? He simply threw the apple a bit more forcefully than intended."

Shulk gave an exasperated sigh and tapped on the desk before replying, "I mean it's odd since he cut me off when I was retelling my vison to Ness and Metaknight." He waited as Phoenix and Owl tried to calm themselves only for them to fail miserably. "Um….. Y…you have a bruise on the back of your head." Shulk looked up from examining his jacket sleeve and snapped, "Really? Bruised and beaned aren't the same thing!"

"Er…. I know…. Expect…." Shulk turned around and blushed in embarrassment when he realized that it was Shy Shooter who was talking, not Phoenix and Owl who had recovered and were trying to breathe properly. Shy Shooter blushed and fiddled with her cowgirl outfit, she was a Mii fighter with blonde short wavy hair, blue eyes and tan skin. She was a more recent and active Mii fighter since she had been transferred over to their Smash area from 3ds Smash.

"Ah, sorry, I er." Shulk winched when Shy Shooter shyly mumbled, "You were a bit busy dealing with your friends at the moment." She switched to fiddling with her island flower that was placed in her hair and mumbled, "You have a bruise…. I can see it... You should… P…Probably let Doctor Mario see that…. Before it gets worse."

"Right! Oh yea!" Shulk pointed to the door that lead to her and her friends sleeping quarters, "Ness was bringing a newcomer to meet you guys!" Shy shooter gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oohhh no! We were just leaving for Jewel Island for the weekend!"

"Well, maybe he can meet you guys before you leave." Phoenix suggested, "Nothing to really worry about."

"But that's the thing! Every Mii who lives on Jewel Island or Dragon Island already left, Shadow Red, Yellington and Skittymom headed out early morning." Owl tried to calm down the agitated Mii down by saying, "Well you and Greenstone can probably say hello before he-,"

"Found it!" A mii wearing a dark green Pirate outfit with wavy brown hair and brown eyes happily strolled over to Shyshoot showing off a book, "Last copy too!" She grinned and pushed her grey glasses up a bit before waving hello to them, "Hey guys! What's up?" Shulk was about to replay when Shy shooter tugged on Greenstone's cape, "W-w-we missed meeting a newcomer!"

"Well, we can meet him when we get back, since the train's about to leave." Shy shooter paled and stammered, "B-b-but!" Greenstone stopped her and said, "We can't ditch the trip since Red and Shadow would kill us, plus I would really like to change out of my Pirate outfit."

"Y-yes but."

"We can meet him when we get back, okay?"

"….But…."

"I'll let you borrow my swimsuit for the beach~" That did it, Shy shooter pulled the Swordsman Mii away from the group with a quick goodbye and they disappeared into a shortcut door, which made it faster to reach certain areas without too much trouble.

* * *

"That was interesting…" Owl mused, Phoenix and Shulk nodded in agreement and deiced to visit Doctor Mario as Shy shooter had suggested. They made it right before Doctor Mario closed his tiny office for the day to head to the surprise party. Phoenix and Owl giggled as Shulk retold the wild apple that had beaned him in the head and when Rob had attempted to draw what had happened.

"Just keep some ice on that bruise and the swelling should go down." Shulk flinched when he did as Doctor Mario instructed, the ice cold seemed to act like molten lava the moment it touched the back of his head. "Owww!" Shulk pulled the ice pack away only for Phoenix to grab it and place it back on his head saying cheerfully "Don't worry, the pain will vanish in a couple seconds."

Shulk grumbled, "Yea right."

Owl laughed and straightened his robe, "Don't worry, you'll forget about the pain at the party."

 **"Party?"** Rob tilted his head acting like an excited child, after Brawl Zero had installed a learning device so he could learn how to speak English, he tended to stay quiet but he did speak when he was excited, "Yes Rob, it's party time." Owl said. They laughed at Rob who screeched a rather robotic **"Woot. Woot."**

And sped off, with Doctor Mario following close behind. "Well, come on. Lucina and Marth will kill us if we're late." Phoenix bit her lip to hide her laughter when the boys groaned in agreement.

* * *

 **And now! To demand for reviews! MUHAHAHA!... Okay no, reviews would be nice since I tend to feel like I'm skimping over some major plot detail. Doesn't help that there are at least 65 fighters in total, not counting the DLC characters which won't be in the Forgotten since I only have Mewtwo and Roy. (Really want Corren, they seem amazing!)**

 **But anyway, review please so I can improve my writing or fix possible plot holes that show up in the future ^_^**


	4. Chapter 4, A Party with an Enemy

**I own none of the characters in this story, not even the awesome Pichus' T_T**

* * *

"And finally, the event room!" Lucas snapped out of a groggy daze and looked to where Ness was pointing, it was a pretty bland double door decorated with golden squiggles that made it even blander than the upbeat and cheerful doors at home.

"Event room?" Lucas tried to sound interested but from the overwhelm of learning there were 65 fighters in total, the huge amount of rooms that he had bugged and the long boring tour he had just taken it was hard to remove that bitter and annoyed edge that he had devolved. Ness noticed and patted Lucas on the back, "Don't worry! This is the last stop for today."

Lucas inwardly groaned but kept a tired smile on his face, "Sure, and that's what you said about the gym room." He joked, Ness laughed and opened it gesturing for Lucas to step inside. _"Hopefully this room will have a snack bar…"_ Lucas thought as his legs stepped inside the room, which was pitch black.

He waited for Ness to grab his hand and turn on the lights but instead he heard the door slam shut.

Lucas paled, fear of failing the mission early bounced around his head as he tried to remember a spell that would brighten the room up. He didn't have long to think when a voice growled, "Are you Lucas?" he spun around trying to figure out where the owner was, "Y-yes! Who are you?"

The voice laughed, which seemed to echo thorough the room,

"I am Lord-," 'click' Lucas shielded his eyes as the lights turned on, temporally blinding him. He heard a large crowd of people shout, "SURPRISE!" And clap for him, when he managed to open his eyes without feeling like that he was looking into the sun he gasped. Not because of the huge surprise party with a banner decorated with pictures from his world and his name spelled in bright bold yellow.

No, he was surprised by how many people there were, and how upset the Master was going to be when Lucas reported this. Someone in the crowd laughed and offered him a party hat, "Hey cheer up! Haven't you had a surprise party before?"

Lucas blinked at the person who offered him the hat, he looked like Kirby, only with long yellow legs and creepy shaped eyes that were pure black. Lucas mutely nodded his head yes as the strange creature grinned and held his hand out, "My name's Pacman! I'm from those old arcade games."

Lucas shook his hand and stumbled over to a party table where Zelda and Peach were handing out snacks and drinks, a woman with long green hair wearing a toga like outfit was scolding Gannondorf who was ignoring her and chatting with King Dedede.

"Hi there!" A perky voice chirped, startling Lucas so bad that he nearly crushed the party hat in his hand, a girl with bright pink hair and sparkly eyes grinned at him.

"I'm Chibi!" Lucas blinked at her before someone pushed her away and introduced herself, "I'm Turnip!" Turnip looked a lot like Chibi only difference was her eyes and hair color, and of course her outfit. She too was shoved out of the way by a droopy eyed boy who also looked like the two girls, "I'm Tie-Dye. Nice to meet you." And on and it went, the night became a blur as everywhere he went he bumped into new fighters who introduced themselves or older fighters from a place called Melee.

He finally managed to find some peace and quiet by hiding in a corner which everyone seemed to be staying away from, "Well, at least this place it quiet." He muttered he was about to sit down and eat his cookie when he noticed someone glaring down at him. It looked like a Pokémon but Lucas couldn't be sure.

"Um…. Hi…." The strange creature glowered down at him for a bit before looking at the party which was currently playing limbo. "You don't seem to be a person big on parties."

Lucas chuckled nervously and said, "W-well I'm not use to big parties like these."

"Don't blame you." The creature glared back the party where the red haired swordsmen called Roy was currently attempting to limbo underneath a pole, "Parties are a waste of time, I'd rather spend my time reading or doing something productive."

"R-right." Lucas inched away and was about to make a dash for it when a Pikachu wearing a gold and black cap ran up to them, "Hey Mewtwo!" Mewtwo glared down at the Pikachu, annoyed that it was talking to him, "What is it Gold?"

"Ya wanna play limbo?" Gold asked, Mewtwo sighed and turned away, "No, you idiotic creature."

Gold frowned before muttering loud enough for Mewtwo to hear, "Chicken." Lucas yelped as Mewtwo spun around anger flashing in his eyes, "What did you call me?" Gold grinned for a spilt second before he sneered, "I called you a chicken. Chicken!"

Lucas was about to defend Mewtwo in hopes of saving the Pikachu when Mewtwo picked him up with his mind and hurled him toward Roy who had just got to the other side of the limbo stick.

"Victory is min-OW!" Mewtwo smirked and teleported away leaving an awfully confused Lucas alone. After that the night once again became a blur as Lucas pretended to have fun, waiting for someone to call an end to the party so he could slip away and take a breather.

It didn't since Link suggested they play Truth or Dare which the girls happily agreed to, except Charizard who snorted and stormed out of the room. Claiming that it was girly game and that he wasn't in the mood for it.

Lucas watched sadly as the pathway to getting away from the party opened and closed and he was once again being dragged into a new activity.

* * *

 _"Man! I was reaallly hoping that I would get a dare!"_ Pikachu sighed and padded down the hallway toward the Café looking for Charizard with the help of Captain Falcon and Yoshi who had quickly went to search the arenas to see if Charizard was brawling against a digital image again. Pikachu knew what they really were up to, they wanted to battle since Yoshi claimed he was the greatest fighter ever and Captain Falcon didn't believe him.

He sighed and took a sip of Oran berry juice that he had 'borrowed' from Mr. Game n Watch's café fridge and glanced at the TV which showed the two fighters choosing their stage, they seemed to be arguing since the curser went all over the place until they finally choose random which picked-

Pikachu choked and spat out his drink rereading the title of the stage, in bold letters it said, Poke Floats. A stage that was only in Melee.

He blinked and read it for a third time. He breathed a sigh of relief when a picture of the Kalos Elite Four stage and title was there, not Poke Floats. "I must be going crazy." Pikachu joked, he jumped off his stool and went back to his search. He searched everywhere before finding Charizard in the training room, pounding the poor sandbag into the ground.

Pikachu quickly darted back the way he came saying that he had found him, therefore didn't need to talk to him at the moment. He wandered back into the empty Café and glanced at the screen the Winner's screen was up, meaning that the battle had ended.

Pikachu frowned when he noticed that both Yoshi and Captain Falcon were clapping as if they had forfeited the match, but both had lost all three stock which was all of their lives and their third profile picture that was blank, yet it showed an invisible person standing in the winner circle.

The would screen freeze for a bit, showing Captain Falcon as the winner for a couple minutes before resetting back to the invisible third person. Pikachu gasped when he heard the victory music it was down a bit and softer, but it was definitely Pokémon themed music showing that a Pokémon had won, but everyone was at the party minus himself, Charizard, Captain Falcon and Yoshi.

"What the heck is going on…?" Pikachu whispered, he watched as the screen froze once more and reshow Captain Falcon before cutting out, killing the lights in the café.

"Come and find us if you dare~" A voice teased, Pikachu spun around, glaring into the pitch black blanket that rested over the café. A voice giggled and Pikachu heard footsteps heading down the bedroom hallway. He chased after it, somewhat surprised when he hadn't tripped over any chairs and tables. He quickly bit his tongue when he tripped over a heavy object.

"Ow!" Pikachu glared at the faintly lit object which he quickly recognized as a tape which a picture of two very familiar Pichus, "No way…" Pikachu picked the tap up and studied it, "It can't be…" It was, grinning happily up at him were the Pichu Bros holding up the number 2.

"Tee-hee~" The voice giggled, "Did you find usss~?"

"Get out here and face me cowards!" Pikachu yelled, he waited as the voice hmed for a bit before happily saying, "Nope! Gotta find us!" Pikachu groaned but raced down the hallway tape held tightly in his tiny mouth, he finally trapped the mystery jokesters in his room, which he shared with the seven other Pikachus, "Alright guys. Game over." Pikachu declared, he closed the door behind him and went to turn on the lights when four voices screamed in unison, "Pichu used hug! Super effective!" Pikachu yelped as they tackled him and pinned him to the ground, happily nuzzling his cheeks with theirs.

The lights turned on and Pikachu saw his attackers, even though he already knew who they were, four bright eyed Pichus beamed happily him, Adventure, the Pichu with the green backpack, Sky, the Pichu with dark blue goggles, Pirate with his red bandana wrapped around his ear and Pichu who wore nothing but a happy grin.

"We missed you Pikachu!" They said and promptly went back to nuzzling him, Pikachu happily patted their heads and studied each one once they finally finished nuzzling him.

They all looked they had during the Melee tournament only they had a stronger stance like they could take on anything or anyone alone or with help from their friends.

Pikachu laughed they began talking at once telling him how they managed to sneak aboard a train that had appeared out of nowhere and became ninjas sneaking around the huge world of Smash.

Adventure couldn't help but add in some bogus monsters they had faced and destroyed, then when Sky had claimed that Adventure was lying they got into a fist fight which Pichu quickly broke up.

"So can we stay?" Pirate asked, Pikachu pretended to think for a couple moments which earned a chorus of, "Pleeeeaasssseee!" and single "I'll bite your ear off if you say no." From Adventure, "Alright, you guys can stay."

"YAAAAYYY!" once again Pikachu found himself on the ground being nuzzled to death, "Alright, alright! That's enough."

"Daawwww!" They complained but got off of him but not before Adventure nibbled on his ear, "Adventure!"

"What? I like nibbling on ears."

Pikachu sighed as the other Pichus' giggled while Adventure looked up to Pikachu, not understanding why he seemed upset, "Please try not to do it again, it hurts." Adventure frowned and started sniffling, "But I wasn't trying to hurt you…."

Pikachu sighed and patted his head, "I know, you were just playing." He picked up the tape he had dropped and waved it in the air, "Now who wants to watch a video?"

"MEMEMEMEMME!"

Pikachu laughed and lead the hyper four up to his bed, which was on the tippy top of a fake tree, their room was weird. It was a mix between a forest where the Pikachus' had come from and their trainer's room. Only Pikachu preferred to be in the tree since he didn't have to share his bed with any of the others, he also got to watch old VSR tapes without Lady gushing over how old it was and how blah it is. She had been the cause of a new challenge, of not shoving her off the top of the tree and into Headband's bush-bed.

Pikachu popped the tape in, charged up the TV with a thunderbolt and scurried over to his leaf pile couch which Pirate had claimed was his new ship, until Sky argued that it was an airplane and they once again, got into a fist fight. They calmed down when the show started.

They spent their time yelling at Meowth for not getting the invites sent to the Pichu Bros and friends sooner, but happily forgave him when he blasted himself off into outer space when he was trying to light some fireworks.

"Pichu Bros rule!" Sky cheered, "Arrggh." Pirate growled, trying to sound like a pirate, "But they be not as cool as we be!"

"Pirate, stop butchering the English language." Pirate glared at Pichu who snickered and hide under the leaf couch, "Get back here ye swabbie!

"Don't you mean rat? Since swabbies are your teammates?" Pirate glared at Sky before jumping into the couch to fight with Pichu, Pikachu sighed but didn't bother to break up the fight, instead he dug around an old box and pulled out a VSR, he quickly swapped the tapes and pressed play.

Right on cue, the Pokemon theme blared out of the speakers, "Whoa!" Sky exclaimed, "Its Pikachu's adventure!" Adventure squealed, Pirate and Pichu dug themselves out of the couch and looked at the TV, "Cooooolll!" They scrambled closer to the screen while Pikachu snacked on some Oran berries somehow growing from the tree. A couple minutes later he was tucking the Pichus into his bed and turning off his TV, which was only on the second episode of the tape.

"Pleasant dreams you four." Pikachu kissed them gently on their foreheads earning sleepy giggles and a groggy, "Fear… Me, I be a pirate…." From of course, Pirate. Pikachu didn't mind that he was going to have to sleep on the treetop instead of on his warm small bed he was just glad that he got to spend some time with his baby siblings. Although he was curious to know how they got here and how he was going to introduce everyone to the once forgotten characters.

"Oh well," He yawned and made himself comfortable, "Those questions could wait." And with that he happily took the train to dream land. Of course, when morning came everything got worse.

"Steal us a banana kay?" Pikachu laughed as Pichu looked up to him, practically begging Pikachu to remember this time, "Don't worry, I'll remember to get you four some Oran berries." Pikachu teased,

"We said banana!" they groaned, Pikachu laughed and patted their heads, "I'm joking! I'll get you guys some bananas." They cheered and hugged Pikachu before saying a quick goodbye to Pikachu as he scampered down the tree stairs, which were just branches that were placed to be stairs. "Soooo." Pichu glanced at his comrades who went to use Pikachu's box as a fort, "How long until one of them find the captured?"

Adventure poked his head out and pulled out a small watch with a video screen, "Don't know, they probably won't find one until-," He jerked back as someone found Captain Falcon and Yoshi and screamed in horror, "Never mind! Someone found them."

Pikachu all of a sudden wished that he hadn't brought a tray with four bananas and a muffin when Princess Peach discovered Captain Falcon and Yoshi turned into trophies and stuffed into a storage closet for items. A crowd had formed and jostled the contents of the tray right out of the numb Pikachu's hands. He watched as Marth and Link tried their best to quiet the crowd and get some answers.

"Alright, alright!" Link shouted trying to get the crowd to shut up, "We don't know what happened but it's probably just a glitch." To prove it his theory Link stepped off the small table he and Marth were using and tapped Captain Falcon's trophy, it glowed like it was supposed to but instead of reviving the race car driver it stayed frozen.

"Okay…. We may have something more than a glitch." Link said after he tapped the trophy a couple more times before trying with Yoshi. Peach quickly fainted only to get slapped awake by Mewtwo, "Before all of you morons begin to panic." He snapped, "Lucario and I have a good guess that Wario may also be a trophy as well." He glanced at Lucario was reading Captain Falcon and Yoshi's aura conforming their suspicions.

"And why would you think that?" Gannondorf folded his arms and sneered down at Mewtwo who ignored him and kept his focus on Lucario, "We might have found Wario in the train, but we couldn't fully explore it since it started to leave." Mewtwo said, Pikachu heard a faint gasp and looked at Lady who surprisingly wasn't the one who gasped.

It was Lucina and Phoenix who were looking at Shulk, he seemed to be upset about something he reached for his Monado a couple times but hesitated and lowered his arm finally he spoke up, his voice trembling slightly as if he feared the answer, "Mewtwo, when you and Lucario were searching the train, did you stop at the third car door?"

Mewtwo nodded, "The door was jammed and we were forced to turn around because of the dumb train." He was about to go on a rant when he realized something.

"But, how did you-."

Lucina curtly cut him off, "We'll explain later, we have to see if Wario really is a trophy." Right on cue they heard the train's whistle as it pulled into the station, "Then we'd better hurry up and check!" Mario said, they raced to the train station and Mewtwo, Shulk and Link hurried onto the train.

Pikachu looked around hoping that he wasn't the only one terrified, he wasn't. The rest of the Pika squad were also terrified and the Villagers were looking at each other, worried expressions all around.

The only one who didn't seem worried or terrified was Lucas, he seemed…. Bored about the whole thing and was stroking his rope snake who hissed in delight.

Pikachu didn't have long to study the boy since a painful 'scrrreeeeccch' could be heard as Link, Mewtwo and Shulk dragged Wario's trophy onto the platform. "So much for Wario being the culprit." Dedede grumbled.

"Great, three fighters are turned into trophies and almost everyone disliked them to some degree." Bowser muttered. Zelda glared at him and took charge of the situation, earning a grateful smile from Mario and Link who weren't sure what to do next. "Alright, first we need to form a list of people who had last seen Wario, Captain Falcon and Yoshi, when I call out their names, you will raise your hand and stat where you last say them and what time it was." She survived the crowd before saying, "Understand?"

A quiet chorus of yes, understand and of course gently echoed throughout the station. Zelda nodded and called out Wario's name, a couple hands rose into the air, they belong to Peach, Samus, Chibi and Toon Link. One by one they gave their statement which were sadly very useless.

Toon Link and Samus had bumped into Wario when they attempted to play Tennis in the Training room right before lunch, Peach said that she had saw him sneaking into the café with some smart bombs right after lunch.

And Chibi thought she had seen him mumbling something about a get rich scheme during lunch. Zelda glanced at Doctor Mario who was using his doctor's pad and pencil to take notes, he nodded a clear signal that told the Princess that he had finished and Zelda asked about Captain Falcon.

Nearly everyone rose their hands, all saying that they had either seen him at the newcomers' announcement or at the party before he, Yoshi and Pikachu had gone off to look for Charizard. Pikachu gulped when Zelda looked at him, he wasn't afraid of telling the truth, he was afraid that the truth may or may not accidently incriminate the Pichus.

"I last saw Captain Falcon and Yoshi at the café, they headed into the stage selection screen to pick a stage. I left after I saw which stage they choose, it was the Kalos Elite Four stage and found Charizard beating up the sandbag." Charizard snorted not believing him and asked, "And you didn't say anything because…?"

"Because you were destroying a sandbag and I decided that talking to you at that moment was a bad idea. When I came back I saw that Captain Falcon and Yoshi had supposedly forfeited the battle and thought that they had left without telling me." Pikachu tried to stay calm as Zelda questioned, "Supposedly?"

"Well, the match was at the results screen and it said that both players had lost three lives each, which was all of their lives. The screen was also glitching saying that there was a third fighter who won the battle. But it didn't show who."

Zelda frowned slightly but didn't say anything instead Ness asked, "Has anyone seen Alph or Luigi?" a chorus of no's and Olimar mumbling that he hadn't seen the small mechanic ever since he went to say hi to Lucas answered his question, "Lucas, have you seen Alph?" Ness looked hopefully at his friend who shook his head no, "I haven't seen him since he gave me a heart attack. I think he was heading to the library though."

Pikachu watched as a small search group was formed to look around for Alph who did tend to disappear from time to time in the huge Smash area but with the recent trophy attacks Mario and Samus had suggested that everyone travel in groups just to be safe.

Pikachu had scampered off after Link told him that they were having a council meeting after lunch. He tried to remember it but right now he was focusing on questioning the Pichus having the sinking feeling that they were involved in this somehow. He made it to his room in record time and scurried up the tree branch muttering under his breath, "Please be there, PLEASE be there!"

"Adventure uses tackle!" Adventure tackled him and happily giggled, "Super effective!" Pikachu wheezed a, "Hooray" before passing out, earning annoyed groans from the Pikchus. "Nice going Adventure, ya Ko'ed him!" Pirate snapped, Adventure frowned and crossed his tiny arms, "I tackle the people I like. Is that so wrong?"

Pichu poked Pikachu's check a couple times before saying, "Well, when you knock out the person you like I think that it becomes a problem." Sky snickered, "Well, to be fair he didn't bring us bananas." Pichu nodded in agreement and Adventure grinned pleased to know that he wasn't in too much trouble. Then they heard the door open and someone call, "Yo! Pikachu! Ya here?"

The Pichus scurried back to their hiding spot and waited as seven pairs of feet climbed up the tree, "Alright! He's not-," Headband trailed off when he saw Pikachu on a pile of leaves, not moving. Lady screamed and covered her eyes, "T-t-hey got Pikachu!"

Red hat and Gold tried to calm her down while Wizard and Hiro inspected Pikachu 'trophy' state. "Uh, Lady he's not a trophy." Wizard poked Pikachu's foot while Lady sniffled and inched over to see for herself, "B-but if he's not a trophy then why…?"

"He probably passed out from all the stress, he _is_ a part of the council after all." Red Hat pointed out.

"Or maybe he's the reason why Captain Falcon and Yoshi are trophies." Gold suggested, Wizard sighed in disbelief and was about to defend Pikachu when Gold cut him off saying, "After all, didn't it seem like Pikachu was hiding something?"

They thought about this for a while, remembering how nervous Pikachu had seemed when Zelda had called on him, and how he didn't have too many details on the result glitch and how he had rushed off after Link had told him about the meeting.

"True, but maybe he had a good reason. Maybe he found a clue that pointed to a friend and he wanted to see if it was true." Headband nodded in agreement with Wizard's statement while Lady and Hiro frowned, not believing it as the answer.

"Or maybe Pikachu's really a double-Ack!" a small pale yellow blur tackled Gold and shoved him off the edge, "Stay down!"' Pichu snarled as Gold held onto a tree branch for dear life.

"Welp," Headband fixed his green headband and let loose a couple sparks, "Look like we found what Pikachu was hiding." Pichu glared at him and whistled, Adventure and Sky shot out of the bush crashing into Hiro and Headband, Lady screamed, "Call the council!"

"Fall off a tree lady!" Pirate snapped, sending her flying as he crashed into her. Wizard and Red hat watched in amazement, "Is this… Real?" Wizard asked, "I think so…" Red Hat mumbled, they watched as Headband fought off Adventure while Hiro tried to outrun Sky in hopes of getting a clean thunder shot. But Sky wouldn't let him.

"We should probably wake Pikachu up." Red Hat mumbled, "Yea, he probably can stop them from doing too much damage." Wizard shook Pikachu the best he could while Red Hat tried to stop the Pichus' from destroying the tree.

"Why, do I hear fighting?" Pikachu groaned, siting up slowly and rubbing his head. Apparently, the best way to wake someone up was with a thunder bolt. Wizard pointed to the battlefield which had the Pichus chasing everyone but Headband, he and Adventure were arguing about who was the better explorer/fighter. Pikachu sighed and went around to break up the fights.

"Hey!" Sky yelped as Pikachu pulled him off of Lady, "I was winning!"

"Yes, and now you four are going to start talking." Pikachu gave them a scolding glare, "Talk about what?" Pirate asked his eyes lit up as he gasped and asked, "Are we going to find treasure!?" Adventure scoffed and pushed Pirate, "No we're going on an adventure silly!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"We aren't going to look for treasure and we aren't going on an adventure." Pikachu crossed his arms and tapped his foot, "What I want to know is why you four were fighting Lady, Hiro, Gold and Headband." Headband grumbled, "I was winning." Causing Adventure to stick his tongue out while Pichu glared at Gold, saying his carefully chosen words with as much ice as he could muster.

"While you were knocked out, Gold accused you of attacking Captain Moron and Dino." Pichu held his head high and proudly said, "And we deiced to defend your honor by teaching them a lesson while Wizard tried to think up more theories or something."

"What? Why would I attack Captain Falcon and Yoshi!?" Pikachu looked at the four battered Pikachus, Lady and Hiro looked away while Headband defended himself with, "All I did was stand then and think, I never said anything." Gold held his ground though, "Although you don't have a motive you were the only one there, and you were jumpy this morning."

"Of course I was jumpy! I go down to get them bananas and find two of our friends turned into trophies! And the fact that the only reason why I bumped into the Pichus was because they turned off the lights and lured me into out room didn't seem like something I wanted to share without them getting hurt!"

Pikachu took a huge breath and faced the Pichus who were grinning at him. "And were you four fighting against them or not? I heard a Pokémon victory theme and saw Poke Floats as a stage."

"Well, Adventure and I got bored so we deiced to battle Captain Falcon and Yoshi." Sky fiddled with his blue neck tie and beamed a grin at Pikachu, "We won because we were are awesome!" Pirate added, "And because they appeared out of nowhere and screamed boo."

Adventure and Sky shushed him while Pikachu asked, "When you won, did you turn Captain Falcon and Yoshi into trophies?" hoping that they hadn't and had just ran off to prank him after they finished the battle. He turned a lighter shade of yellow when they answered with a cheerful

"Yup!"

Lady yelp and demanded "What?! Why would you turn them into trophies!?"

Pichu tilted his head not understanding why Lady was so upset, "Well why shouldn't we? After all everyone got turned into a trophy until Master Hand throws us back into the game." Adventure nodded in agreement, "That's how the game goes. Duh."

Pikachu, Wizard and Red Hat shared a worried glance, although Pichu was sort of right, since that was how it used to be until Brawl banned trophy transformation because of the Subspace event. But of course, the Pichus' didn't know that what they had done was wrong, or that they might have permanently forced Captain Falcon and Yoshi out of the game for good.

Wizard finally spoke up after a silent debate, "Pichu, that's how the game used to go, but we had to change some rules after an incident happened in Brawl."

Adventure frowned trying to be the first to figure out what Wizard meant, "So them turning into trophies…. Was bad?" They nodded and the Pichus' exchanged worried glances, now realizing that they had done something very bad, and that saying sorry wasn't going to fix it.

Red Hat gently patted their heads, earning their attention and spoke in a tone that a mother would use when she was comforting a child who had done something by mistake.

"Listen, I know you guys didn't mean to hurt them, it was an accident right?" They nodded their heads yes and wiped a couple tears from their eyes, "So all you guys have to do is to try and not make that mistake anymore. Okay?"

"Okay Red Hat." Then they tackled him in a hug earning a yelp from Red Hat, Wizard laughed and shook his head, "Well, at least their method of saying hello hasn't changed." Pikachu snickered as Wizard got jumped next and ended up losing his wizard hat, "Now I'm Wizard Pichu!" Pichu proudly put on the hat and ran away from Wizard who was ordering Pichu to give it back, his answer was a playful, "Never!" and a thunder shock.

The rest of the Pikachus watched in horror while Pikachu, Red hat and the Pichus' chased each other around, either trying to get their stolen headgear back or just chasing them for fun.

"Ya know…. Those guys are fun!" Headband jumped into the fray and stole Adventure's backpack, "Thief! Hand it over or face my wraith!"

"Gotta catch me first slowpoke!" Headband dashed down the tree with Adventure in hot pursuit. Lady, Hiro and Gold simply watched until they collapsed from fagtuie, "I…. Am…. Victories!" Adventure panted, Headband chuckled and gasped, "In… Your… Dreams!"

"Well, now that's over with. Can we move onto more important details?" Pikachu wearily glanced at Lady who was hovering over him her mouth a thin angry line.

"Like… What?" Pikachu wheezed, Lady pointed to the Pichus' who were using each other as a pillow. "Like reporting this to the council?"

"Lady, I am on the council, therefore it is already reported."

"You know what I mean!" Pikachu groaned and closed his eyes, really wishing that he had time for a nap, but of course Lady was just going to pester him until he did had she'd asked. "Fine… I'll tell them." Pikachu waited for Lady to give a satisfied sigh before he dared to open his eyes, which he quickly regretted when he saw a clock hovering above him. Telling him that it was time to go, "I'm going, I'm going!" Pikachu scampered down the tree with Lady following close behind,

To ensure that Pikachu did tell the council what was going on. This of course which added a dark cloud to Pikachu's usually sunny outlook of life. "Hey Pikachu! Ask about what happened to Luigi face when ya get there!" Sky grinned down at him and waved a green marker in the air, "He may or may not look like an alien."

Pikachu groaned and yelled up at the tiresome troublemakers, "Please stop getting into trouble!" Sky stuck his tongue out and went to study the green marker in his hands. He waited until Lady and Pikachu left before he scampered to the Pichu clubhouse.

He smirked when he saw that everyone was taking a nap, or were heading to the café to get some snacks and drinks. He moved some leaves out of the way and joined his friends who were carefully flipping past video records that they had taken.

They had already explored the place and stolen some muffins from under Mr. Game n Watch's nose and overheard some rumors that may or may not help them in their plan, "Ya know, after that speech Red Hat gave us, I'm reaaaalllly starting to wonder if this is the right thing to do." Sky looked at Pichu who was frowning slightly as he watched Kirby and Metaknight examine Captain Falcon and Yoshi's trophy.

"Meh, it's probably not." Pirate said, "But it would be a good idea to tone down on the pranks. For a while of course." Adventure nodded and opened a web browser and tried to look something up, "Although, we may have to get rid of three sticks in the mud…"

"Yea," Sky snickered, "Three sticks named Lady, Gold and Mr Japan!" Pirate giggled at the nickname they had given the strange tan Pikachu with the red circle headband while Pichu remembered something, "Say. Didn't someone see our plans or something?"

"Yea, that Monado kid." Adventure pointed to Shulk who was planning something with Lucina. "Meh, first let's find out about this 3ds add on." Sky suggested. They nodded in agreement and munched on some muffins while they clicked past camera screens.

"Ya know… We could just ask Pikachu about the 3ds thingy." Pichu pointed out, "Oh yea!" Adventure frowned and scratched his ear, "But how to do it without him asking questions…?"

"Yo! I have come with mini pizzas!" Headband chuckled and yelled, "BOW DOWN TO YOUR LEADER!"

"Or we could ask Headband." Sky deadpanned, they scurried out of their clubhouse and happily stole the tray of mini pizzas before bombarding him with questions.

Normally, whenever they held a council meeting it was for a fun event, breaking up a possible villains plot or setting up the challenges but now with a possible threat coming everyone was tense. Except Samus, she looked around glad that for once her emotions were hidden, if they weren't then everyone would see how uncertain and confused she was.

She knew 9 out 12 who were on the council, Link, Mario, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Ness, Kirby, Fox, DK, Captain Falcon, Luigi and Yoshi, but sadly Captain Falcon and Yoshi's blue and green chairs were empty.

Samus gulped and watched as Link paced back and forth, having grown up during a time for action and for quick decisions he mostly lead the charge on problems while Mario was more laid back and tended to think things through at his own pace, not at someone else's. But since it now seemed to be organized crime Link was in charge, and somehow. Samus was second in command.

"All right," Link faced a bulletin board that was at the back of the dull colored room, it used to hold announcements about possible new comers or changes that Master Hand would make every now and then,

but now it was something out of a murder show. Captain Falcon and Yoshi had a picture showing the scene of the crime and a photo of poor Alph who the Villagers had found hiding behind a tree. He too was a trophy only a look of horror and surprise was on his face instead of the neutral expression Captain Falcon and Yoshi had.

"So far, we don't have much to really go on besides Shulk, Lucina, Phoenix and Owl's vision, which showed Wario getting attacked and after that Captain Falcon and Yoshi." Link pointed to Wario's picture which was near the bottom of the board.

With a picture of the train and of where he was found. Samus frowned as she debated raising her hand and saying what she had found or simply saying it out loud like everyone else was doing. She picked the latter and tried to speak over the din of suggestions and monkey sounds.

"Um, I have some information to share." They quieted down and looked at her, causing a chill of nervous to run down her spine (suit?) "Sheik and I stumbled upon Shulk and his friends during the vison, and they seemed to be unconusions, also in pain.

When we headed to the café to get some snacks and juice to wake them up they were up and about." She paused as she replayed the memory to be sure that everything was correct, "But I noticed that Shulk seemed uneasy about his Mondao and that all four of them were avoiding using a certain hand or looking at with some pained curiosity."

"Maybe that had something to do with butterflies." Ness offered, "They asked me about it in the morning during the party planning." Mario frowned and tilted his hat, "True, but we can't be sure since Shulk said that the vision played out differently." Luigi nodded and rubbed his green dyed mustache, Samus looked away to avoid laughing since his face was covered in blue and green marker scribbles.

He claimed that he was in the library when he had heard a noise, turned around and fainted when he saw a ghost. When he came too he found that he had been pranked, "They also said that they heard someone talking to them, directly. Scolding them about seeing into the future."

"Didn't Lucina say that he seemed more like a child than a threat?" Fox asked. Kirby frowned and scribbled some more on his drawing before showing it to everyone else, it was a picture of Lucas with a purple cloud around him and a question mark. "You think Lucas might have something to do with this?" Mario asked, Kirby nodded and chirped, "Poyo!"

"Well… Lucas was once a forgotten." Link reminded them. An eerie quiet fell upon them as a small list of suspects formed, it could have been the forgotten that they had, after all Mewtwo always seemed touchy about everything, Roy stayed in his room all the time and Doctor Mario liked to stay in his office.

And now with Lucas who seemed to be acting odd, there was no telling what could happen. The silence was finally broken by Link who sighed and got up from his green and gold chair, "Alright, before we start accusing people of being the people behind this mess we should start by investigating Lucas, I'll call Greenstone and to see if she knows anything." He looked at Ness who spun his yoyo in a tight circle, "I'll keep an eye on Lucas."

"And I'll start setting up patrols and groups." Luigi offered, he gave a small smile as Mario sent his younger brother a proud smile, "If we're in groups then they'll have a harder time sneaking around or taking us out."

"Great idea, I'll get word going." Jigglypuff hopped off of her Pink and white chair while Kirby grabbed some crayons off the square oak table, "It also might be a good idea to set up some video cameras around here, mostly at the train station." Pikachu offered, Link nodded and Samus volunteered, "I'll get Zero's help for that. We could build some with Megaman's old parts."

 _"But first, I need to make sure a certain ninja doesn't do anything dumb."_ Samus thought, they left to carry out their missions while Link went to the Villagers room to use their Lovely Phone (an item Chibi had brought from her town) to call Greenstone, Samus meant to hurry to the room she shared with Shiek when she bumped into Zero and Megaman who seemed to be racing.

"Well, there are two people I was looking for." Samus grinned but flinched when Zero readied her stun gun, Megaman gently pushed the gun away from Samus asking, "I'm guessing you need something?"

"Yup! I need both of you to help me set up video camreas around the place." Samus laughed nervously as Zero slowly brought the gunpoint back to her helmet, "Sooo you guys in?"

Megaman grinned, "I've always wanted to build spy cams!"

Zero lowered the gun and growled, "Fine. But no funny business." Samus bit back a squeal of happiness. Glad to see that Zero hadn't shot her out of the orbit and head to the junk room to get some parts. Soon she forgot about finding Shiek and focused on getting everything working, Shulk and Owl had joined them in building the cameras and setting up the network while Megaman and Zero focused on taking apart small machines for useful parts.

They worked into the night and spent the time chatting, telling goofy stories or teasing Owl about his ability to get electrocuted every time he touched a computer.

"It's not funny!" Owl snapped, but he had a hint of a smile on his face when he said this. Pretty soon they had the cameras up and running, all that was left was Megaman setting up the firewalls and where the data should go.

"I was sort of excepting this to be a lot harder than this." Owl joked, Zero smirked and flicked a signed lock of hair out his eyes, "Well it would have gone faster if you hadn't keep blowing up the computer."

"I was just wondering how they work!"

"Suuureee." Samus teased, Owl huffed and nearly dropped the camera he was holding, "Alright, firewall's up!" Megaman pushed himself away from the computer desk, "Now all we have to do is set up the cameras and try them up."

"I call setting them up in the café!" Owl ducked as Samus happily punched a fist in the air, claiming her territory.

"We know Samus, we know." Zero sighed and headed off to her area, which was the library, there plan was to set up the cameras in the main room, check to see if they were working before setting up the final camera. Samus happily hummed to herself as she balanced on a ladder.

She was so focused on her job that she didn't see Lucas leading Ness to the train station or that Lucas was carrying a camera.

* * *

 **The plot thickens, Dun dun dun!**


	5. Chapter 5 Join the Party!

**If I owned any of the characters in this chapter, then I would happily bring them back to their proper game/comic and once again become a threat/helper to the main story.**

 **(And I'm not talking Ness or Lucas since I barely knew they existed outside of Smash ^_^')**

* * *

Ness, was starting to doubt his friend, the moment he had stepped out of the council room and completed his task, Lucas had appeared out of nowhere babbling about knowing something connected to the trophies. And now they were riding the train into who knows where?

Ness gulped and spun his yoyo around while Lucas and Jaws were playing a game, "Ness, you wanna play?" Ness jumped and faced Lucas who seemed incredibly cheerful about riding the train into nowhere.

Ness frowned, "Lucas. Maybe we should be more worried about the fact that we're-,"

"Don't worry!" Lucas chirped, "Where we're going isn't anywhere dangerous!" he glanced at Jaws who hissed in agreement, "Besides! Father wouldn't let anything bad happen to us!"

"Father? Lucas, what are you talking about?" Ness flinched when Lucas gave him that same cheerful smile, as if nothing in the world could ruin whatever happy picture was in his mind, "You'll see! Father's the reason why we're even here!"

"We're?" Ness raised an eyebrow and was about to ask Lucas to clarify when the train stopped, "We're here!" Lucas picked up his camera and Jaws slithered onto his arm, "Lucas wait!" Ness watched horrified as Lucas jumped off, disappearing in the murky darkness. He chased after his friend in hopes of catching him before the train left but found that he couldn't see anything.

"Alright then…" Ness snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared in his hand he held it out in hopes of lighting up the area but the darkness seemed to writhe and fight back with a static hiss, silencing the flame. "Great, I'm stuck in the dark with no hope of getting a light source." Ness sighed and struggled forward, glancing back every so often to make sure that the train didn't leave.

"There you are!"

Ness screamed as Lucas appeared out of the darkness eagerly grabbing his hand, "Sorry! I forgot that you can't see like we can." Lucas grinned and started dragging Ness through the murky darkness, "Don't worry! Father says that you'll be able see once you get to the main hall!"

Ness blinked and stammered, "Main hall? Lucas what are you talking about?" Lucas laughed and lead Ness to a faint light source, "You'll see! It's the greatest main hall ever! Even cooler than that dumb café you guys have!" Ness was about to argue that their café was not dumb when he noticed something. Lucas seemed to know everything about this place, and the living darkness didn't seem to bother him either.

He felt a twinge of panic when he remembered what Shulk had tried to tell him, but was swiftly interrupted by a miskicked apple which had enough force to leave a rather large bruise. Ness slowly slipped his hand out of Lucas's and backed away, _"Come to think of it… Alph vanished right after he went to bug Lucas. Could he really be behind the trophy mess?"_

Lucas noticed when Ness pulled his hand out of his and looked back at his friend, confused. "What's wrong Ness? The dark getting to you?" Ness shook his head and pointed at Lucas, the pieces slowly fitting into pieces. "You're behind the trophies, aren't you?" Lucas's grin faltered and was replaced by a small pout. Ness flinched when Lucas playfully looked away and said, "Maaaayyyybbbeeee, maybe not."

"Lucas, this isn't a game." Ness crossed his arms and studied Lucas closely, "People are worried, and this isn't funny! I know that your upset about being forgotten but-,"

"That's not why I'm doing this…." Ness blinked surprised that Lucas had interrupted him, Lucas always waited for the person to finish their sentence unless it was important.

Lucas's playfulness vanished and was replaced by something darker, almost bitter and full of anguish. "I'm doing this for a chance to be remembered, for a chance of getting a new family. I'm doing this for _you_."

"Me? What did I do? And how is replacing your old family worth nearly murdering your friends!?" Ness demanded, he quickly wish that he had taken a lighter tone since Lucas snarled and used Jaws to grab him, pulling him closer to the possibly insane boy.

"My old family's dead! My twin brother was kidnapped leaving everyone to think that he was dead only for me to find out that he was still alive and that I helped kill himself! My mother's been dead, and who knows what happened to my father and Boney after I joined Smash!"

Ness tried to break free as Lucas ranted, the darkness reacted with every scream and angry gesture he made, "And now! Now I have a chance with a new family! A new father and a chance to have a new brother!" Ness yelped as the darkness pulsed in rhythm, his feet going limp as the floor was removed from underneath him.

"O-okay, Lucas let's calm down, this isn't like you." Ness whimpered, he glanced down at Jaws whose fangs seemed to dig deeper and deeper into his shirt, nearly making skin contact. He was terrified since no matter what he did, he couldn't break free of that rope snake's iron jaw.

"No! This is totally like me! After being left alone for the dark for so long, every failure I've ever made came back to haunt me!" Lucas raised a fist prepared to punch Ness, "Lucas, wait!" Ness closed his eyes knowing that his plea wouldn't work and waited for the blow to come.

Instead he heard someone playful scold Lucas, "Ah, ah, ah!" He felt Lucas tense then quickly relax as the owner of the voice stepped into Ness's limited line of sight, "We don't hit our brothers now do we?" Lucas shook his head no and dropped Ness in favor of getting a hug from the man.

Ness watched as his eyes tried to send his brain details about the man looked like, but no matter how hard he tried to focus the man's image was blurred and distorted. Making it impossible for Ness to pick out anything other than the fact that he had a bright shade of…. Some color. The man gave Ness a friendly, yet oddly strained smile and helped him up, "Well now! You've kept us on our toes for quite a while now Ness!"

Ness shakily stepped away from the man who pouted while Lucas looked away, ashamed. "Now, now. There's no reason to get upset with Lucas now is there?" The man took a step forward, the pout quickly becoming replaced by a cheerful smile, "He only wanted to be reunited with his brother."

"I'm not his brother!" Ness snapped, Lucas flinched and the man sighed, "Ness, I thought you had a better temper than that."

"I do! Just not when it comes to people who may have endangered my friends!" Ness turned around and started to run for the train when the man happily chirped, "The train won't work unless I want it to~!"

Ness stopped and whirled around to face him, "What?!" Lucas nodded and beamed a proud smile at the man who Ness guessed was his 'Father'

"Father controls what happens here, he can choose to start a battle or if he wants the train to work." Lucas glanced at Ness who was giving them a horrified expression, "It's not so bad here you just got to get used to everything."

"I think I'm going to be sick." Was all Ness could manage. Lucas paled and was about to rush to his 'brother's' side when Father stopped him, "I think Ness needs some alone time for now." Lucas was about to object but Father cut him off, "I know, I know. It's unfair but Ness has to first get the idea that I might be even more powerful than those foolish hands." He giggled at the thought of brutally beating those useless pawns to the dust before he held his hand out to see Lucas's camera.

Lucas happily handed it over and began giving him a report over what he had learned so far, "As you can see, they have a huge base and the most used rooms seem to be-," Father waved that information away mumbling, "Main rooms are the biggest rooms, meaning that we'll just have to stay away from them." He frowned when he clicked the next picture and saw a picture of Megman and the Wiifit Trainers. "Who are _they?"_

"Megaman and the Wiifit couple, there are a total of 64 fighters now, minus Wario, Captain Falcon, Yoshi and Some annoying color palate called Alph who's from the Pikmin series." Lucas took a step back as his Father compared their army size against the Smash 4. "6-64?" he repeated, Lucas didn't bother to say yes once more and went to insepct Ness who had recovered slightly and was watching the scene play out with interest. "64?! 64?!"

"Hold on…." Lucas muttered as his Father did what he does best, throw a major tantrum. "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!? 64 FIGHTERS!?" Ness screamed as the entire floor flipped upside down, he grabbed onto Lucas who seemed unfazed by the sudden turn of events and simply waited as Father screamed and stomped his foot on the invisible floor.

When he finally calmed down, the train was a wreck and the pulsing darkness had turned into a calm ocean blue, "Well fine!" Father huffed he glared at no one and waved a fist in the air, "I've found a new way to get new members to join our cause! And there better than everyone in that dumb Smash 4!"

Lucas cheered while Ness gaped at the man in horror, "Ugh, and now you're going to launch into a speech about how you're going to stop me now and yadada." Father rolled his eyes tapped his foot expectedly, "Well?"

Ness gulped and backed away, looking at Lucas with hurt filled eyes, "I thought you were better than this Lucas, betraying your friends for a false promise?" Lucas cringed and tried to defend himself, but his Father did it for him, "As if you can talk!"

He crossed his arms and sneered down at Ness who bravely stood his ground, "You partner up with Lucas promising to protect him only to promptly get turned into a statue instead of PK thundering him out of the way to save him. And now here you are, running back to your little army to throw us back in that awful state of being forgotten."

Ness ignored him and started to run for the train, trying to push that awful memory of being turned trophy after he had met Lucas or the new memory of a heartbroken Lucas watching him leave. "Uh, Father… Shouldn't we stop him?" Lucas asked after Ness was halfway there to the train, Father smiled down at Lucas and patted his head.

"Don't worry, I figured he would reject his role and run back to those fools, so I brought one of your little friends here." He clapped his hands as Ness was sent flying by a powerful PK thunder. Lucas gasped and watched as his once dead twin brother stepped off the train. "C…Claus!?" Lucas watched as Claus began to use PK love forcing Ness to roll out of the way.

"Who are you!?" Ness demanded, he ducked as Claus attacked with powerful PK Thunder, "My name, Is Claus." Ness frowned as he tried to figure out where he had heard that name before, "And I don't like seeing my twin brother being pushed around!" Claus once again attacked with PK thunder sending Ness flying through the air and turning into a trophy, a look of realization on his face as he remembered who Claus was.

"Well, that takes care of him." Claus dusted his hands off and grinned, "CLAUS!" Lucas tackled his brother in a hug and nearly strangled him, "Hey easy! You're going to kill me!" Claus joked, Lucas yelped and let go earning a frown from Claus, "I'm joking scaryed cat!" he pulled his brother into a headlock and gave him a noggie, ignoring Lucas's pleas to be let go. He did after Father had glided down to join them.

"How?"

Father grinned as Lucas looked up at him, wanting to know the answer to his brother's second chance of life, "Simple really, I got the idea after Mask complained about how I couldn't bring Claus back even though he was a forgotten." He twirled around and grinned at Claus who frowned at him,

"So after I did some digging around I used your old Brawl data, changed it to give your brother your attacks only stronger and a new final smash with PK love along with a proper outfit."

"With this knowledge I can bring more forgotten fighters to join our cause! Even if they weren't in the Smash bros series!" He laughed and spun around, "I'm a genius!"

Lucas clapped in approval while Claus frowned and scratched his head, not understanding why they were so happy or why the strange man had pointed to the sky and yelled, "You're going down control freak! Ya hear me!" and then started laughing at the fact that the control freak was really just a floating hand.

Claus didn't know why that was so funny or why Lucas had yelled for a guy called Reptile to break his neck to stop the laughter. But he did know this, he was back into the world of the living and he wasn't going to be a cowardly brother who saw death as the easy way out and once again leave Lucas.

* * *

"Food, check. Water? Check." Shiek reorganized her backpack for the 20th time checking and rechecking to make sure that she had everything she needed. She nodded and reached for her scarf tightening it before glancing at the clock.

The time read 7 PM, to think that only a couple hours ago chaos and fear had erupted turning their peaceful home into a realm of darkness. Where not even the King of Darkness itself could control, _"But… This isn't my home…"_ Sheik sighed and waited for Samus to remember her original mission to come and stop her.

Luckily she didn't have to wait long since Samus barged into their room tripped over her metal boots and landed on a pile of random guns that Sheik had made sure stayed on her side. Sheik closed the door and made herself comfortable on her sleeping bag, which functioned as her bed. Samus quickly recovered and pointed an accusing finger at her, "You were at the meeting today," Shiek nodded yes, "And you plan on doing…"

"Doing some spying on the enemy team." Sheik finished, "Which you aren't going to do!" Samus pulled off her helmet, revealing her wavy green hair and bright blue eyes. "Sheik, I know that we do need information but it's too dangerous! You're a valuable fighter!"

"More like a broken fighter…." Sheik mumbled, Samus scowled and tried to comfort her friend, "Just because the main owner of the game feels like you're a broken fighter doesn't mean you are." Sheik looked away before glancing back, "Samus… Can you remember your past life?"

"Not this again." Samus pulled the arm of her suit off and with a heavy sigh, she dully answered Sheik's question, "I don't physically remember my original life but thanks to my suit I can easily replay important moments and act like I know what I'm talking about." Then she added, "But I'm just as lost as you are so don't go sacrificing yourself!"

Sheik laughed bitterly and flicked her braid over her shoulder, "Why shouldn't I? I have no memory of who I was, why I'm here or what I did that helped Zelda save Hyrule, I can't even remember where or what Hyrule is."

Samus sighed and sat down, having heard various parts of the speech before, it wouldn't be considered rude if she seemed bored.

"All that I know was that I once _was_ Zelda, and even then! Everything's a blurry mess. I can't remember who Roy or Mewtwo was, who might the forgotten fighters be or how to properly interact without attacking someone."

"But you're getting better at controlling your ninja urges!" Samus offered.

"I don't even know why I have ninja urges! Or why Zelda calls me a Sheikah!" Sheik stood up, embarrassed at letting her emotions show and headed for the door, only for Samus to yelp and block the door, "Listen! It's a simple solution! Owl and Phoenix had amnesia! And they got their memories back!"

"That's only because a magical force prevented them from remembering properly."

"Yea true…. But we have cameras!"

"I've managed to sneak around worst."

"Yea- but-, I'll fight you!" Sheik raised an eyebrow, amused by Samus's somewhat pathetic attempts at making Sheik stay, "Samus, you know my mind's made up."

"…I can change it."

"No, you can't."

"I can try!" in an act of desperation Samus used her plasma whip which Sheik easily dodged, "And you may fail. Face it Samus, I don't have any value besides being a clone character."

"You are not a clone!" Samus argued, "No one else can fight like you can!"

"True, but I still have no value and no one will notice that I've disappeared." Sheik watched as Samus sniffled and crossed her arms like an upset toddler, "I'll notice."

"Because you'll be the only one who knew that I left." Sheik hugged Samus before pushing her away from the door, "I'll be back, in one piece."

"You better…" Samus grumbled, she sadly watched as Sheik closed the door and silently sprinted to the train station, avoiding the cameras' glares and dove inside the train car right before the doors closed. She pushed the sudden pang of loneness as Samus waved goodbye wearing her favorite pajamas. She waved back right before she was engulfed by darkness.

She wiped a tear away as the soothing elevator music faded and was replaced by the sound of static attempting to act like music. She climbed on the ceiling of the car and waited for it to stop. Her mission… Was about to begin and so far, it was going to be in darkness.

* * *

"Ugh. Where the /%# am I?" he opened his eyes and adjusted his red sunglasses, "And there's no lights. Lovely." He stood up and did a couple quick running stretches before tightening his awesome black leather flame streaked jacket. He walked around for a bit before he called out, "Yo Fi! Ya here?" No reply, "Crazy Frog? A mad cackle will do if you're here."

Silence. Scowling he kept walking, a small nagging fear that he was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no gang and no real clue to who might show up.

He finally found something, which was utterly useless, a random sign board which said, **"Welcome! Today, your whole world is going to turn upside down!"**

"Oh really?" sneering, he kicked the signboard, "I turn your world upside down if you don't tell me where the #%& I am!" he heard a thud and turned around to see a second signboard, this time with an angry smiley face.

 **"I'd like to see you try! After all, you're playing with my** ** _rules_** **and what I say, goes. After all, without me you would be dead, floating in a world that used to be real."**

"What are you talking about?" he turned around to see a third sign, which only furthered his annoyance, **"It's simple really, your mission is to go forth and collect team members, as if you were in an RPG. This should hopefully tone down your attitude and you'll get some answers in return!"**

"Oh goodie." He stretched once more and opened a door that had randomly appeared in front of him, he quickly regretted it the moment he had stepped through since he was blinded by a bright light which quickly faded to black.

"You just LOVE to blind me!" He looked around and saw faint shadowy outlines, "Great. I'm lost in the middle of-,"

 **"STOP CURSING! It's not nice or polite."**

"Says who?"

 **"Says me, from now on, whenever you attempt to curse I'll replace the world with something that make no sense or I'll punish you."**

"Oh really? Well, fudge banana pops!" he yelped and covered his mouth, glaring angrily at the new sign that had appeared taunting him.

 **"I waaarrned you~ :D"**

He growled but went to explore the place, muttering to himself that it wouldn't be so bad, once he calmed down the curse amount would lessen since he only used those words when he was extremely angry or wanted to make a point in a serious moment. He found a sixth sign that had an utterly useless hint.

 **"Convince the shadow to join your party! Challenge, you can't use fear to make him join."**

"I hate you. So much." Fear, his greatest tool to use when forming a new gang, they obeyed him, didn't question him and did everything to carry out his goals. Sure, he did have other tricks up his sleeve, flirting if they were girls or his moron of a dad's trick. Smoozing.

He shuddered, he could smooth talk anyone into doing what he wanted if he put his mind to it and found some pressure points. He had years of watching his dad do it for his plan of making a better world with peace talks and parties. He'd made it a tool to avoid using since he hated his dad with all his might.

He walked around for a bit before he saw a kid, wearing a black tunic and matching hat with his back turned facing a gothic mirror the boy glanced at the Scourge's reflection in the mirror and snickered, "Well, well, well, who are you?"

He gritted his cartooney sharp teeth and answered as calmly as he could despite wanting to destroy the sign maker for putting that idiotic challenge in place, "Scourge the Hedgehog.

"Scourge? What a funny name." the kid giggled, he stood up and graceful spun to face him, an impish grin on his pale face. "My name's Shadow Link, Shadow for short." Scourge extended a hand which Shadow carefully shook, as if he wasn't used to a formal greeting before, which gave Scourge a couple seconds to plan how the heck to get this kid on his side. Luckily Shadow picked up the conversation since he seemed incredibly chatty.

"So how come you're in the land of the shadows huh?"

"Beats me, woke up in the middle of nowhere and was told to form a party." Scourge joined him and looked at the mirror, it was murky and showed shadowy images that seemed to be playing.

"So you're a not shadow?"

"Heh, in a way. I was but after I bumped into a certain blue counterpart I got a stronger gang and took over my world to prove I was the strongest." Scourge smirked when he saw the awed expression on Shadow's face.

"Whoa! Not even Vaati could do that!" then he frowned as if realizing something, "If you managed to do all that, then what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be focusing on ruling your world?"

Scourge scowled and glared at his reflection, even though he was now officially a new person, not a clone of that pompous heroic copycat he couldn't help but feel hatred at his mirror self, as if it was really Sonic looking back at him. "Got bored and tried to get my Anti to join me, plus to grind him into the dirt since I got a lovely birthday gift."

"Birthday gift? Oh! I should give you a gift to celebrate our new friendship!" Scourge was about to correct him with a flat, "I don't make friends."

When Shadow chirped, "Close your eyes and hold your hands out!"

"…Fine." Scourge grumbled, he did as he was told and held his hands out, he heard the little imp giggle and something heavy being deposited into his hands. He opened his eyes and uttered a string of curse words which changed into gibberish as he realized he was holding a giant bomb that was blinking a dangerous red.

"You little imp! Scourge threw it as far as he could and sprinted to the doorway he had come in through.

It exploded and somehow didn't destroy the mirror on the cliff it was standing on, "Wow! You run fast!" Scourge looked up to see Shadow floating above him, a cruel yet somehow playful grin on his face.

"Gee, thanks for the gift imp." Shadow giggled and floated down to eye level, "Your welcome! Now what's your real reason for coming here?"

"Told ya, I woke up here and was told to form a party." Scourge gritted his teeth when Shadow sighed and crossed his legs, "Suuurrre and I'm Princess Zelda."

"Ya know, I have a gift for you too." Scourge grabbed Shadow who yelped in surprise as he was thrown onto the ground and spin-dashed into. "That!" Scourge snarled, "Was for saying my name was funny!"

Shadow coughed and mumbled, "Thanks for the gift." Scourge grinned and kept Shadow down, "Now then, I have an offer on fixing your spot of just being someone else's shadow."

"…"

"Apparently the sign maker can give me some answers if I form a party, and it also seems to be the only way to get to the next room. I'm pretty sure the guy in charge would happily answer some of your questions."

"And… All I have to do is join your party?"

"Bingo!"

"Deal." Shadow melted into the floor and appeared behind Scourge, "This is going to be awesome!" Scourge glanced to the front of the door and was relieved to see that a purple door was waiting for them.

"Come on, hopefully there aren't anyone else we need to recruit." Scourge easily made it to the other side in a couple seconds while Shadow did his best to keep up, Scourge couldn't help but taunt the imp for being so slow.

Shadow simply ignored him and opened the door, reveling a room that you would normally see in a temple, the floor was made out of stone with patches of moss happily growing on various bricks.

It was pretty much empty besides a pedestal in the middle with a gleaming sword in the middle of the room and of course a sign that said,

 **"Free the Wind Mage! I'm quite sure that you and he will be best buddies Scourge! :D"**

"Wind mage?" Scourge ignored the sign and poked the sword, "How could a person get trapped in a sword?"

"Well, it is the sword that banishes evil and seals it." Shadow offered,

"I'm guessing that this Wind mage is from your world then?"

"Yeaaaa." Shadow hovered a couple inches above the ground and twiddled his thumbs, "I used to work from him and Gannondorf since I was born from the Dark Mirror that they used to create armies. He's… Sort of like you I guess."

"Lovely." Scourge carefully grabbed the hilt of the sword and pulled. A roar and a tornado of wind sent Scourge crashing into a wall as the winds blasted out of the small hole. When the wind storm had calmed down a boy who looked around the age of 12 like Shadow but somewhat taller. He was standing where the sword was looking around with an annoyed expression.

Scourge fought the urge to laugh since his outfit and hair style was ridicules. From the long lavender hair that covered his left red eye to the purple tunic, cape and for some reason orange puffy pants.

The boy quickly recovered from being freed and glared at Shadow who withered under his angry gaze, "So, you came back to free me traitor?"

"Well, Scourge freed you since we need you to join our party." Shadow clarified, Scourge bit his tongue to stop himself from harshly correcting Shadow on whose party it was. For once he was more interested in seeing the way purple boy interacted with Shadow who seemed terrified of him.

"And who is this Scourge?" the boy snarled.

"That would be me purple." Scourge sneered "Nice to see a little girl talk so high and mighty."

"I'm a boy!"

Scourge laughed and placed a foot on the boy's chest, prepared to kick him to the ground, "Oh suuuureee, and I'm the king of the world. Oh wait, I am!" the boy yelped as Scourge kicked him to the ground, Shadow did the smart thing and backed up to the wall. If the sign that had magical appeared to warn Scourge was right. Scourge was going to push a button and a blood battle would be the least of his problems.

"And _I,_ am Vaati, known as the immortal demon and the powerful Wind Mage, I turned the Princess of Hyrule into stone and turned my foolish mentor into a useless hat." Vaati effortlessly used his power over the winds to gently push him back into a standing position, sneering at Scourge, "What have you done rat? Besides boast that you've taken over the world of course."

Scourge laughed and adjusted his sunglasses, "Well, I'm about to add kicking your butt to the list!" Vaati scoffed, "I'd like to see you try!"

"With pleasure." Scourge spin-dashed him and sent him crashing into a wall. Sneering Scourge easily lifted the mage up by his collar and flung him to the other side of the room. "Ready to give up?" Scourge asked. Vaati replied by catching himself midair and landing on his feet and summoning three small whirlwinds which he promptly aimed at Scourge.

"You have no knowledge of my power twit!" Vaati scoffed as Scourge out ran the whirlwinds, watching as they crashed into the wall and vanished. "Oh please, I'm as fast as the wind! You gotta up your game princess!" Scourge laughed as Vaati snarled, "I am a boy!" and sent a huge tornado at him.

Scourge once again dodged prepared to insult the mage once more only to be caught off guard when a sharp blade of wind sending him crashing into a wall. "Fudge!"

Vaati cackled and proceeded to send a hurricane of winds at the momentarily stunned hedgehog, "I suggest you bow down now fool!"

"In your dreams!"

Vaati yelped as Scourge quickly recovered and did a homing attack, something Scourge didn't plan to do, his original short term idea was to spin dash him, bounce off the wind then bounce back and pound him to dust.

Scourge collided with the sorcerer and somehow landed on his feet while Vaati protected himself with a tornado trying to recover from the slight concussion Scourge had given him. "Heh, your all talk and no action." Scourge jeered, he charged into the tornado to start pounding him when Vaati stopped him at sword point. "What th- Where did you get a sword!?"

"I have… No idea…" Vaati smirked and sliced the air forcing Scourge to retreat, "But I'll be sure to put it to good use!"

"Is that before or after I beat the snot out of you?" Scourge asked. Shadow watched from the shadows since the entire temple had now turned into a battle field there wasn't anywhere safe to hide unless you were a creature born from darkness.

He watched as the battle basically repeated itself, Scourge would get an opening and proceed to melee Vaati with kicks, punches or hurling him into a wall while Vaati would recover and pin Scourge against the wall with wind magic, stunning him for a short amount of time to hurl wind spells, fireballs or to attack with his new sword.

Shadow glanced to his left to see what the sign thought, it had appeared a couple seconds before the battle began and had silently tried to prevent the fight from starting but failed. So it joined Shadow and chatted with him the best a signboard could.

"So any chance of them stopping?"

 **"Nope, looks like I'm going to have to stop this myself. Although I am regretting giving Vaati a sword…"**

"I'm surprised at how well he's using it, he only used it once to compete in some sort of tournament."

 **"Well, I had to give him something so he wouldn't relay solely on wind magic."**

"Huh?"

 **"Nothing!** **J** **I shall answer all your questions when the time comes! But for now…"**

Shadow blinked as the signboard vanished and landed on Scourge and Vaati somehow knocking them both to the ground, they cursed or tried to since all they did was spout nonsense before Scourge read the message.

 **"All right listen up! You two are part of a party since you two are really alike."**

"Me? Being alike with that rat? Hah!" Vaati shoved the signboard off him and dusted himself off.

 **"Well, you to do have the same background depending on how you look at it, but for now! I'm forcing you two to join sides for a greater goal!"**

"And what goal will that be?" Vaati asked, Scourge gritted his teeth as the signboard didn't add anything to his message, "I think that's why we're even forming a party. To get some answers."

"Really?" Vaati glared at Shadow who had deiced it was safe to come out and answered Vaati's question, "Plus Scourge says that this guy might be able to free me from being a shadow!"

"…You seem…A lot more cheerful than I remember." Vaati grumbled, he sighed and fixed his cloak, "Fine, I'll join this pathic party in hopes of getting somewhere in this dumb place."

Scourge ignored him and headed to the distorted door that had appeared, "So we went from a world of shadowy outlines, a temple like room and now an empty gallery with the door already here." Scourge frowned since everything so far made no sense. He looked over to see Vaati and Shadow's reaction.

Vaati was disgusted with the fact that there was barely anything except for the door and Shadow seemed not to care only focusing on why everything was white.

"Where's the signboard dude?" Scourge asked, right on cue a sign fell from the sky with a useless hint that didn't really tell them anything about their mission besides **"Free the forgotten painting."**

"How the –flapjacks are we supposed to free a forgotten painting?!" Scourge kicked the sign over while Vaati snickered.

"What in the world does that have to do with flapjacks?" Shadow asked, "Nothing!" Scourge snapped, "The stupid sign manic made it so whatever curse word I say it becomes replaced with something ridicules!"

"Really? –cranberries!" Shadow giggled and started yelling things which were probably curse words but sounded utterly ridiculous. Vaati watched with a haughty sniff and started walking, "Well since the door's here we might as well check the next room."

"Fine." Scourge grumbled, the he winched and yelled, "What the bananas is that sound!?"

"What sound? I can't hear anything." Shadow frowned then strained his ears while Scourge's ears flattened to his head, trying to block out whatever sound he heard, "Wait… I think I hear it."

Vaati raised an eyebrow and listened as well, "It's incredibly high pitched, no wonder it gives you a headache." A sudden shiver went down his spine as the eerie song became a bit louder.

The faint haunting melody seemed to warp his mind, rendering him unable to think properly without the feeling that something was watching them.

"Let's leave."

Shadow and Scourge agreed and they started for the door, after a while of walking they slowly began to notice something, for once thing the door wasn't getting any closer, even when Vaati suggested that they close the distance by running the door never seemed to get any closer.

"Apparently," Vaati wheezed, "We can't get any closer to that door unless we find that forgotten painting." Scourge groaned and looked around, "Well, I found _a_ painting, not sure if it's forgotten since I could care less about art."

Shadow blinked and studied it, they somehow didn't notice it even though it was the only colorful object in the room, there was a girl wearing a purple witch robe and hat with a rainbow colored paintbrush strapped to her back.

Whoever had painted her had deiced to put her in an action pose, with her running forward, handout stretch with a seemly desperate expression on her face as the world behind her seemed to fall into ruin.

"She seems to be reaching out for help." Vaati noted,

"How the heck can we help a painting?" Scourge asked, he joined Shadow and inspected it, he couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency and desperation when he looked into her bright yellow eye. Which didn't seem human.

"Maybe if we keep walking we'll find something?" Shadow offered, "Only thing we got so far." Scourge muttered.

Once again they tried to walk to the door but the sudden 'BANG' stopped them, they looked at the painting and bit back a scream when they saw the girl now lying on her back, her single yellow eye now a dizzy symbol.

"S-she moved!" Scourge took a step back and gasped when the girl moved an inch, "And she reacts to movement!" Shadow whimpered. Vaati ignored them and held a hand out trying to gauge what magic the artist could had used to animate the painting.

"Well whoever painted this must have been skilled in the dark arts since I sense a lot of- AHHH!" Vaati tried to jump back but a light purple hand grabbed his, Vaati shivered since the hand seemed to be made out of wet paint, which was dripping onto the floor.

A second hand appeared and latched on, slowly trying to pull him in. "Help!" Vaati screeched his magic was useless for the moment since wind vs paint almost always ended in the paint winning since it was a heavier substile. Shadow was the first to react and tried to pull Vaati away from the painting. Scourge quickly joined him and with a sickening noise that remind Scourge of water being drained to quickly they somehow managed to pull Vaati free. And the painted girl.

"Ew, ew ew!" Vaati scurried away from the girl who was happily looking around, trying to figure out where she was.

"Oh get over it, it's just pai- WHY IS SHE HUGGING ME!?"

Shadow giggled as the girl happily released Scourge from the hug and tackled Vaati who cringed and gently tried to push her off of him. Shadow didn't mind the hug that much since most of the dripping paint had dried.

When she finished saying thank you, she curiosity and pulled the light rainbow colored paintbrush from behind her back. She glared at for a few seconds before twirling it in the air and painting on the white wall.

"The painting's an artist." Scourge mumbled still trying to recover from the cold slimly hug she had given him, "Interesting."

"What's even more interesting is the fact that she doesn't need any paint. All the colors she needs just appear." Shadow pointed out, Scourge and Vaati looked at the half finished painting. It seemed to be a distorted version of a green meadow but the green was replaced with a sinister purple and the blue sky was a misty indigo.

Vaati smirked and stood up, "Well perhaps she can solve our little door issue." He was about to walk over and ask her something when a sign stopped him.

 **"Before you get any ideas womanizer, she's ten."**

Shadow giggled as Vaati slowly backed away from the sign, Scourge shook his head with a grin and poked the girl who was somehow painting tiny black sheep with her large paintbrush. "Hey kiddo, ya got a name?" she paused long enough to blink at him, before pointing to her painting which was labeled, "Drawcia."

"Drawcia? Your name's Drawcia?" Drawcia nodded and went back to painting her odd little world. "Well Drawcia, we happen to be stuck here. You wouldn't have a way to get us over to that door would ya?"

Drawcia glanced at the door and gave it a disgusted look, "Oh great! Now we're trapped here!" Vaati threw his hands up accidently summoning a small gust of wind and glared at the door that now seemed to be taunting them.

Drawcia seemed to frown at him, (Scourge couldn't tell since she hadn't bother to remove her bandana that was tied around her face) and began painting a square outline.

They watched as Drawcia painted a grand oak wood door and decorated it with roses and floating leaves, when she finished she grabbed the doorknob and opened it.

"She's an artist, who can bring her art to work." Shadow mused, "Impressive."

"But could have just painted a simple door, not some fancy piece of art." Vaati pointed out, Drawcia glowered at him and stepped through the door, the boys followed her having a debate about why she took so long to paint a simple door.

They didn't notice that they had stepped outside and into an overgrown forest, the trees looming above them as if they were trying to block out the sun itself or to trap the unsuspecting. Shadow finally noticed when he bumped into a giant worm like creature with a flower sprouting out of his head.

It glared at Shadow and tried to attack him, only to be destroyed as Shadow whipped out his sword and attacked in a blur of motion, "Remind me never to get on Shadow's bad side." Scourge said once the Wiggler had disappeared. Vaati snorted and poked Scourge, "Oh please! That was hardly anything to be impressed by, but then again when you've never held a sword before I supposed anything can impress you."

Scourge glowered at him and raised a fist, "And I supposed that getting a knuckle sandwich can be pretty painful for the first time."

"Knuckle sandwich? What kind of sandwich is-OW!" Vaati staggered as Scourge howled at Vaati's reaction to being punch in the face, "Walk it off wimp! I barely put any force in that sandwich!"

"That wasn't a sandwich! That was you punching me!" Vaati snapped, Drawcia watched before quickly getting bored and decided to paint the trees. She paused when she noticed an odd puffy light yellow thing hiding behind the bush, she crept closer to examine it before she used her paintbrush to change its awful color to a lovely moss green to fit in the forest.

It yelped and a layer of fog covered the forest making it impossible to see, this stopped Scourge and Vaati's attempt to kill each other as they focused their anger on Drawcia who was trying to figure out why the fog had appeared.

"Drawcia! What did you do?!" Vaati snapped, Drawcia tilted her head and pointed to the bush she had tried to pain, "So let me get this straight." Shadow kicked the bush with his boot and frowned, "You painted this bush and then the fog appeared?"

She nodded then shook her head no, "So you did and didn't try to paint this bush?" Drawcia frowned and quickly painted the little she saw when she attacked the strange creature, "So you tried to paint this person and he ran?" Shadow asked, she nodded and looked around trying to remember where he ran.

"Well whoever summoned this dumb fog is going to pay." Scourge glared around the misty woods and growled, "Not being able to see anything puts a damper on having super speed."

"Whoever did this must have magic, powerful magic since mine isn't working!" Vaati swiped at the fog trying to summon a gust of wind to prove his point, Scourge felt the wind nearly knock him over but the fog didn't clear it stubbornly stayed there. Practically taunting them to continue.

"Come on." Shadow pulled his sword out again and pointed it in a random direction, "We might as well start walking."

* * *

You would think that being abandoned in a degrading house that anyone would pack up and take whatever useful valuables they had since fixing up the house would cost too much and uncover to many problems and buying a new house would have been easier for most, but not for the somewhat oath bound puppet.

Although his body was made out of wood that was threating to rot from the inside out and collapse every time he bent down or moved a jot he would still take the time out of his thoughts to tidy out the abandoned cottage.

Feeling it was the least he could do since it felt criminal to live in someone's house without their permission, even though they had moved out a long time ago.

He glanced at the broken window, the sun as consumed by a thick layer of fog which sent the barely lit cottage into murky darkness. Frowning he murmured. "I wonder what's got Mallow so worked up now." He finished sweeping and went back to his spot underneath the window and went limp acting like he was an abandoned puppet.

He was about to resume his pondering on why he had returned to the wooden puppet known as Geno when he heard Mallow scream, "GEEENNOOOOO!" And nearly break the door down, Geno straightened and frowned as Mallow clumsily tried to lock the door, terrified of whatever he found.

"What's wrong Mallow?"

Mallow turned around and promptly tripped over his legs, Geno winched and made to get up when Mallow jumped back up and started babbling something about villains.

"Mallow, perhaps you should calm yourself before you explain what happened." Geno tilted his head up at the window to show the fog that Mallow had accidently created. "Oh… Sorry." Mallow sniffled,

"It's alright, you're just having a hard time calming down, that's all. Happens to the best of us."

Mallow sniffled again but joined Geno on the floor, pulling his long light blue coat around him tighter. Geno smiled and drifted back into his thoughts while he waited for Mallow to calm down.

He focused on the thought that nagged him the most. Why? Why had he come back to this world even though his mission was finished, he had stopped Smithy the evil metal tyrant who had broken the Star Rod for his evil plan with the help of Mallow, Mario, Peach and Bowser. So why was he back on earth? And why did he and Mallow look completely different?

Truth to be told when Mallow had first woken him up it had taken some convincing for Geno to believe that he was the same Nimbus prince he had traveled with, for one thing Mallow wasn't the cute cloud like little boy wearing a blue striped outfit. He was now a human around the age of a 13 with a puffy hairstyle that was pale yellow with misty pink ends and his trademark pink bang that curled inward from time to time.

His outfit had changed as well, giving him a more of a pirate look instead of his simple sack like outfit, which had now turned into a long blue striped tanktop with a belt with a bright green stone.

He also had pale yellow pants and shiny purple shoes. And then there was the random coat, Geno almost always missed puffy yellow ends that looked like someone had sewed a flat cloud on sleeve and collar ends of his coat.

Geno's outfit hadn't changed that much, he still had his somewhat tattered cloak and hat only his cloak was shorter than he remembered, either that or he had grown taller than he original was. He wore a dark blue tunic with a pale yellow belt that had a bright star centered in the middle as if to remind him that his body wasn't his own.

He had frowned when he noticed the pale blue shorts that covered his knees and the fact he had more hair than he used to, it was a reddish brown and was choppily cut near the ends, he still had those annoying two curls and the black markings under his eyes.

With an inward sigh. He slowly drifted back to reality and asked, "Mallow, did that young boy ever get… Geno back?" Mallow frowned and pulled on his hair, waiting for it to bounce back into place, "I don't know. After we stopped Smithy and said goodbye I headed back home to start my duties as a prince."

"I see…"

Mallow cringed and tried to cheer the wooden doll up, although Geno didn't show that much emotion other than a thin line of a smile Mallow had learned how to pick up voice tones to guess what Geno was feeling, being a tadpole had its disadvantages when you barely had any human contact. "Don't worry! I'm sure Mario gave it back! He's a great guy!"

"Yes… Of course." Geno glanced at the window relieved to see the sun slowly shining down past the fog and sighed, "Now then, what got you so upset?" Mallow shuddered and retold what had happened, Geno nearly gasped when Mallow told him the brief battle two of the members had with each other, and how none of their teammates had bothered to break up the fight.

"They only stopped when the girl with the paintbrush tried to paint my head! And then they said they were going to beat up whoever made the fog!" Mallow wailed.

Geno felt his wooden joints creak in protest as a storm blow in, courtesy of Mallow. If there was one thing Geno wished he could train Mallow in, it was controlling his emotions.

Being a Nimbus they had weather magic and ruled the city in the sky. But since they had weather magic whatever they felt could cause the weather to change.

Mallow had been getting better at controlling his emotions and magic when he was learning how to be a prince.

But after appearing in the Forest Maze with no one around Mallow had panicked and forgotten most of his training and Geno couldn't exactly help Mallow himself despite his observations off how weather magic worked, he wasn't sure how to help someone control how they felt.

"Alright then," Geno stood up, ignoring his stiff joints and went around the house for rope, "Geno. What are you looking for?" Mallow watched as Geno careful weaved a net with the little rope he had, "We may or may not be facing villains Mallow, and if push comes to shove we may have to resort to cheap tactics if we wish to find out their reason for coming here."

"Ohh okay! I'll get the net ready in the rafters!" Mallow happily picked up the net that Geno had managed to finish and drifted up to the rafters. Before this whole event had happened Mallow couldn't fly let alone float. But now he seemed to truly be a person of the cloud drifting along with or without the wind's guidance. Just because he and Mallow had landed in the middle of nowhere didn't mean that his sense of justice had died, he was considered a hero, and a hero he shall be.

* * *

"First it's a forest of fog, then a random storm comes out of nowhere and now it's sunny. WHAT THE HECK?!" Scourge angrily kicked a rock while Vaati tried to dry his hat with little success, "Hey look! A cabin!" Shadow spun around in a circle while Drawcia frowned, not approving the rundown state of the wooden house.

"Well, at least we have somewhere dry to hide if the rain comes back." Vaati grumbled he pushed open the door just as the rain started up again.

"Oh come on!" They scrambled into the cabin and closed the door behind them. "What is this!? Random weather day!?" Vaati kicked over a rotting chair and tried not to yelp in pain when the leg snapped off and the chair landed on his foot.

Scourge snickered and looked around the room, ignoring Shadow and Drawcia who were happily raiding a box full of random tokens. "Be on guard guys, someone's been living here." Vaati glared at Scourge and snapped, "And how would you know!"

"Because I'm pretty sure that abandon cabins in the woods aren't clean and not full of wild animals." Scourge peered around a support beam that was placed directly in front of a corner and yelped when he saw a wooden puppet sitting in the corner with auburn eyes looking back at him.

"What's wrong? Did you bump into one of those giant worms?" Shadow joined him and jumped. Believing that the puppet was a human being.

"Stupid puppet." Scourge picked it up and tossed it hard into the wall, where it made a somewhat hollow thud against the rotting wall. "If there's anything I hate more than Sonic, it's those creepy life sized dolls."

"Whoever made this must be a magic nerd." Vaati mused, "Perhaps the owner enjoyed adventure and created that odd puppet to act like a hopeless sidekick."

Drawcia glared at them and gently placed the puppet back into a sitting position, she made a little bow with her head as if to say sorry and went back to painting random markings on the wall.

"Drawcia, it's just a puppet. It doesn't have- MMPH!" Drawcia slapped Vaati with her paintbrush painting a piece of tape over his mouth and angrily waved her fist at him. Vaati snarled and tried to take the tape off while Shadow stifled a giggle.

"I guess since she was a painting she has strong feelings for other inanimate objects." Scourge glared at the puppet before examining a well-kept bookcase. "Does this mean she's going to protect garbage as well?" Vaati snarled, he kicked the puppet and joined Scourge by the bookcase to look around for some more clues.

"Hey guys, I found a door!" Shadow opened it and looked outside, "Wait, it just leads back outside. Into more crazy weather woods." He closed it and sighed, "I really want to get out of here." Shadow pulled out his sword and out of pure boredom, began practice a couple sword attacks.

"Shadow put the sword away." Shadow paused as if thinking it over and stuck his tongue out at Scourge before continuing his sword play. Drawcia joined him using her brush a sword and happily dripping paint all over the floor, Scourge watched and fought the rising urge to yell at them or being so childish when he noticed something.

"Hey Shadow, how many people are in this wooden death trap?"

Shadow stopped and closed his eyes, trying to count their shadows, "five. Six if you count the puppet's shadow."

"Six?" Vaati stood up and scanned the room trying to figure out where the sixth person was hiding, "I sense magic but I can't pinpoint where it is." He frowned and closed his eyes while Scourge looked up to see if the culprit was hiding in the rafters. "Spread out, whoever's here is probably trying to trap us."

Drawcia frowned and painted a small ball of paint and sent it flying into the rafters where it exploded.

With a shriek of surprise a boy tumbled down from the rafters with a net in his hand. With a groan the boy rubbed his head and mumbled, "Never knew that paint could hurt that much." Then he froze when he realized he was surrounded with everyone glaring at him.

He stood up and gave a nervous chuckle, "Sooo… Lovely day for the stroll in the Forest Maze right?"

Scourge grinned and formed a fist, "It's going to be a lot better once I pound the answers out of you." The boy gulped but tried his best to seem brave, "Pounding the answers out of me isn't going to get you anywhere."

"Really?" Vaati sneered and formed a little tornado in the palm of his hand, "Are you quite sure about that?" the boy nodded and spoke with more confided than before, "Quite, since I also have questions."

"Oh? Would one of those questions be along the lines of why you made that fog?" Shadow held his sword up, aiming right at the boy's throat, he gently applied some pressure and taunted, "Of course, that might be after we do something awful to you."

"Threatening me isn't going to you any answers." The boy said. He calmly looked around the room before making eye contact with Shadow who frowned and snapped, "It will too!"

"No it won't."

"Will too!"

"No it won't."

"Will-"

"Shut up!" Vaati angrily turned the boy around to make eye contact and hissed, "Start talking pretty boy! Or else you're going to find out what happens when you anger a wind mage!" the boy blinked and asked, "You're a wind mage?"

"Yes! Now star-,"

"Wow!" the boy clapped his hands and studied Vaati the best he could when being surrounded by murderous villains, "I've never met a Wind Mage before! What's it like having control over the wind? Can you push storms in and out of the way? Oh! I bet-,"

"Shut up kid!" Scourge grabbed him by the collar of his coat and pinned him to a wall, "You must be really dumb if you think you can just kiss up and get away punk!"

"Soooo, are you guys villains or something?"

Scourge snarled and pulled his fist back to give the cartooney eyed kid an even bigger black eye, "No! We're goody two shoes here to help save the world!

"Well, then it looks like the only way to get our questions answered is to speak your language." Scourge growled and dropped the boy long enough to glare at the newcomer, "What the- Since when could the puppet move!?"

"Since just now apparently." Vaati muttered. The puppet frowned or seemed to frown and bluntly said, "This puppet has a name."

"Really? And what is it?" Shadow asked as he casually aimed his sword at the puppet's throat. "My name is !?." Then it sighed and waved its hand, "But you may call me Geno."

"Geno eh?" Vaati sneered and increased the tornado in his hand prepared to blast Geno to splinters, "And just how are you going to speak our language if you're just a pile of rotting wood?"

The thin line turned into a small smile as Geno stared the mage down, "Like this." In a flash of motion and blinding light Geno summoned a glowing disk of magic and hurled it at Vaati shouting "Geno Whirl!"

Vaati gasped as the disk went right through him and sent him flying all over the room crashing into his comrades in the process, Geno took this opportunity to summon a second spell and charge it to its full potential, "Heads up Mallow! Geno Boost!"

Mallow glanced at the hovering arrow above his head as he felt his attack and defense power rise, he pulled out his Sonic Cymbals and slammed them hard as Vaati finally landed, "Oh come on!" Vaati screamed as was sent flying around the room again.

Scourge dodged the flying wind mage and tried to spin-dash Geno.

"You're pretty fast." Geno noted, "Perhaps even faster than I am." Geno sidestepped and fired five star like glowing bullets at Scourge, who quickly recovered from missing Geno and jumped out of the way.

"Of course I'm faster than you puppet boy!" Scourge spin-dashed again only this time he stopped before Geno could dodge and low kicked him.

"Heh," Scourge watched as Geno caught himself before landing on the floor and readied a spell, "You're pretty good for a piece of wood.

"And you're pretty good for a trash talking villain." Geno aimed and shouted, "Geno Beam!" Scourge cursed softly as he took the full blast of the beam, not able to get out of the way fast enough. "Mallow! How are you doing?"

Mallow paused long enough from his battle with Shadow and Vaati to say, "I'm doing okay, Vaati's really good with Wind mage! Not so well with weather magic though."

Vaati snarled and hurled a fireball at Mallow who floated out of the way and clapped his Cymbals, sending a shockwave toward the duo.

"Alright, no more playtime cloud boy!" Shadow summoned a giant bomb and aimed at Mallow who yelped in surprise and floated over to Geno who was firing his Star Gun at Scourge who was doing his best to dodge and fight back.

"Heads up Geno!" Mallow warned

Geno glanced at the bomb hurtling towards them and caught it with ease, "Oh come on!" Shadow stomped his foot and glared at Geno, "He has super strength as well!?" Geno wisely choose not to answer that and tossed the bomb back at Shadow who tsk'ed and damped the fuse.

"These guys are good." Scourge muttered, he joined Vaati and Shadow who were looking worse for wear, "Got any magic mumbo jumbo that can take care of these losers Vaati?" Vaati angrily glared at Scourge and spat, "If I had any I would have used it earlier!"

"Hey… Why do you have a dangerous red 999% sign floating above your head?" Vaati glared at Shadow before he followed his gaze, "I have…. No idea how or why that is floating above my head."

Scourge growled and glanced back at Geno and Mallow who were preparing to summon a spell.

"Who cares? Let's just focus on beating them to a pulp!" Shadow grinned in agreement and glanced at Drawcia who hadn't taken a single hit and was happily painting more odd pink flying creatures on the wall, "Hey Drawcia! How about you take a break from painting and help us!" Drawcia glared at him and snapped her fingers.

The creatures peeled off the wall and fluttered above Drawcia, she pointed at Geno and they charged catching the puppet off guard they managed to knock him over before focusing on Mallow who quickly pointed at the villains and yelled "Star Rain!"

"That can't be good." Scourge groaned, Drawcia painted herself a red and white parasol and seemed to grin as a giant star appeared above them and started raining stars down on them.

She frowned when she saw her pink creations get destroyed but deiced to cheer herself up by watching Scourge, Vaati and Shadow scrambled around and pointlessly try to stop the spell.

"Geno Blast!" mutli colored beams joined the raining stars and successfully hit all three of them whenever they tried to dodge a raining star.

When the storm of attacks finally ended they were nearly embedded in the floor. "I. Hate. Puppets." Scourge growled, he looked up and scowled when he saw Geno and Mallow standing over them a happy grin on Mallow's face.

"Now then, will you tell us your true purpose for coming into the Forest Maze?"

"Forest Maze? This place is seriously called the forest maze?!" Vaati pulled his hat over his face and screamed into it. Scourge and Shadow snickered as Vaati threw his little scream tantrum.

Geno polity waited for Vaati to finish before he pressed onward with the questioning,  
"Why are you all here? Judging from the fact that you either didn't see the warning sign about the Forest Maze or that it was simply destroyed it still doesn't fill in the blank about why or how you got here."

Drawcia happily answered that question by spinning her paintbrush and painting a childish picture of how they got here and why they were working together. When she finished she beamed a hopeful smile (supposed smile since she still hadn't taken off her bandana.) at Geno who nodded in approval.

"So some magical sign just appears and tells you to form a party which is also the only way to get to the next room?" Mallow frowned and played with his hair before saying what everyone had on their minds, "That sounds… Really ridiculous just to get some answers."

Shadow sighed and played with his hat, "But it's also the only way to get out of here."

Drawcia nodded in agreement before she inched toward Mallow, a determent glint in her eye as she attempted to 'fix' Mallow's hair color but stopped when Geno said. "Alright then." And turned toward the door that lead into more of the Forest Maze.

"Uh… Alright what?" Shadow jumped up and crossed his arms, "You can't just say alright and turn to leave."

Geno glanced over his shoulder with barely any expression "Well, there isn't any real way out of this problem unless we propose a truce

Vaati scowled and glanced at Shadow who seemed somewhat confused, then again he had never found the need for truces with heroes since they had an army behind them.

"If joining your party is the only way out then it's best to simply join forces and get this over with, Mallow and I also have some questions as well." Geno said as he headed for the door not bothering to look over his shoulder as Scourge tried his best to come up with an argument.

Mallow happily followed Geno outside with Drawcia trailing behind him still determent to paint his puffy hair a 'normal' color and Shadow watching to see if Drawcia succeeded in painting Mallow's hair.

"He's right ya know." Scourge admitted after a while,.

"Well this day just keeps getting better and better!" Vaati hissed, he threw his hands up the air and stormed outside.

When Scourge finally calmed down from getting beaten to a pulp with barely any effort and being forced to allow Mallow and Geno to join their party instead of Scourge talking them into their party he joined them to see Mallow preparing to use a spell.

"Oh come on! We already answered your-" Scourge was about to say more when Mallow interrupted him and Vaati who was yelling at Geno for being a traitor and yelled, "HP rain!"

"And here comes the pain." Shadow cringed and waited before realizing something, "Hey that rhymed!"

Drawcia turned around to head back into the house when the door slammed shut, she glared at and smacked it a couple times with her paintbrush while a smiling cloud appeared above their heads and drench them with water.

Scourge winched as the water rained down on him, stinging a bit at first until he heard a soothing melody, washing away his troubles and his annoyance at being forced to work with someone else who didn't fear him. When the rain stopped he glanced around to see that Vaati and Shadow were fully healed.

"So… HP Rain heals us?" Shadow looked up at the fading cloud and grinned, "Awesome!" Vaati scowled and squeezed the water out of his hat, "And just when it finally finished drying." He grumbled.

"Look on the bright side, at least your fully healed." Mallow gave them a tired smile before looking at Geno, "Um, do you think you can hold off going auto pilot so I can recover, I've never used HP Rain to heal a group of people at once." Mallow sighed and clouds blocked the sun as Geno walked ahead not hearing Mallow's request or acknowledging it.

"Or, you could just go on auto pilot that works too." Mallow grumbled he glanced at the villains saying, "Come on, the only way out is to follow Geno."

Scourge threw his hands up in the air and muttered, "Yaaaay time to follow the wooden machine." Shadow snickered and slipped into the shadows to poke Mallow's.

After a while of trying to catch Geno and not lose sight of him Vaati finally complained after they had lost Geno for the third time in a row. "Is he always like this?! He could wait to slow down and wait for us!"

Drawcia nodded in agreement and sat down on a tree stump to rub her aching feet which weren't use to walking or for long distances at a time without a break, and the fact that she was wearing high heeled boots weren't helping.

Vaati joined her and glared at a bumbling Wiggler which was looking at the flowers.

"Pretty much." Mallow flopped on the forest floor and started making a dirt angle, "I think it's because Geno tends to have a lot on his mind, and after exploring the Forest Maze so much he simply remembered the pattern out of here and put himself on auto pilot so he could mull on other things."

Vaati groaned, "What other things does he have on his mind?!" Shadow snickered and climbed a tree, "Maybe he's thinking how he ended up in such a rotten situation."

Vaati glared at him and hissed, "Is that your attempt at making a pun?"

"Maaayybeee~" Scourge glared at Shadow and rolled his eyes, "Shut up. I'm trying to figure out how to resist strangling you morons."

Drawcia pointed at herself and narrowed her eye, offended that Scourge wanted to strangle her, "Not you Drawcia, I'm talking about the other two morons." Vaati glared at Scourge and was about to threaten him when Shadow asked Mallow question.

"So how did you and Geno meet? You two seems to be as thick as thieves." Mallow laughed, "You'd be surprised. We actually met Geno by chasing him around the Forest Maze."

"Wait what?" Vaati looked at Mallow in surprise, probably at the irony that they found a wooden puppet wandering around the middle of the maze. "Well, we sort of met Geno earlier when he was a doll, but that doesn't really count since Geno didn't take control of the doll until after we met Gaz."'

"Wait, Geno's a doll?" Scourge asked.

"And he possessed it? Cooool!" Vaati glared at Shadow who cringed and pretended to be examining tree leaves Mallow didn't notice this and kept talking. "Yup! Geno serves a higher authority and his mission was to come to earth and fix the Star Rod."

"A higher authority?" Scourge questioned. Mallow nodded, "Yup! He never told me the name but he's a star! And he serves the heavens I guess."

"So he's a star, who came down to earth, took over a doll in order to fix the Star thingy?" Vaati huffed and blasted the leaves that Shadow was pretending to examine, "And this authority he served couldn't just destroy whoever broke the dumb thing? Pathetic."

Mallow angrily frowned causing a couple storm clouds to slowly cover the cheerfully blue sky. "Well if they did that then I've never would have met Mario, Princess Peach, Bowser, Geno or found my real parents and that I was a prince!"

"Wait, you're a prince?" Scourge snickered not believing Mallow due to the fact that he seemed so plain. Mallow gave him an angry glare and snapped "It's not funny!" then he spun on his purple boot and muttered, "Let's go back to Geno."

Vaati groaned and put his sandals back on, "I just love the fact that he's always waiting for us at the start of the cabin just so we can start _all over_ again."

Shadow snickered and playfully poked Vaati who gave him a death glare and a trip back into the tree he had been hiding in.

Scourge silently nodded in agreement with Vaati since it was humiliating even though Mallow and Drawcia didn't seem to care or notice, it always felt like Geno was mocking them for not catching up fast enough and getting lost.

And of course, Geno was waiting for them, sitting by a tree looking up at the angry storm clouds, "This place has really random weather." Shadow grumbled, Drawcia nodded in agreement and hide under a tree just in case it deiced to rain again.

Geno finally pulled his gaze away from the sky when Vaati knocked his hat off saying, "We're back! So you can go back to ditching us in the woods."

Geno ignored him and focused on Mallow who was angrily trying to bury a rock with his foot, "Mallow, is everything alright?"

"Peachy." Mallow grumbled, Vaati scowled and edged toward the second entrance of the Forest Maze hoping to get a head start when Geno deiced to that it was time to go, Shadow and Scourge followed his lead. Geno glanced up at the clouds and mused, "The sky sure seems angry today,"

"Yea, they also hate us for some reason." Scourge grumbled, Geno ignored him and looked back at Mallow. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fine!" Mallow crossed his arms and glared at Scourge who happily ignored him, "Let's go already."

"Alright, if you insist." Geno started to leave but stopped when he remembered something, "I forgot to mention this the first three times but whoever summoned us all here seems to have control of this area since I've noticed that the entrance is coming closer and closer the longer we take."

"Yaaay." Scourge saracstly cheered, "Sign dude is taking pity on us."

"…Okay then…." Mallow giggled as Geno started to once again ditch them but had a confused look on his face as he tried to figure out who was the infamous sign dude.

* * *

 **I really wish that Scourge, Vaati, Mallow and Geno had bigger game placements :/ they were awesome villians/ heroes! Even if human Vaati only appeared in one game... And since Scourge basically left a minor cliffhanger until the Sonic and Megaman universe blew up.**

 **Also, this Shadow Link is Manga Shadow Link, hence why he has a personality.  
**


	6. Chapter 6, Aliens, Spiders and Revenge

**Why can't Fanfiction allow cool fonts T_T I had an Hyrule font just for the sign dude. Also I own nothing. Sadly.  
**

* * *

"They're going to love this." Mask grumbled as his point the finishing touches on his sign. Glacier giggled as she watched Vaati and Scourge chase Geno around for ditching them for over an hour.

"Not as much as I'm loving this!" Glacier adjusted the monitor volume and leaned back in her polar bear shaped beanbag. Mask shook his head and studied his sign for what felt like the 10th time.

He had been put in charge after Father had rage quit trying to find the people he had more or less summoned into their world and into the Forest Maze to give them their hint.

Everyone else who had been watching quickly voted Mask to write the next signs since they claimed he was older and wiser than all of them. Even though Howler grumpily voted for himself.

"Anything coming up on the magic eye thingies Hammer?"

Hammer absently corrected Mask with a bored, "Their called cameras." Before Glacier answered for him, "So far, no one besides Ness and Lucas have tried to board the train and no one has entered."

Mask glanced at the many security monitors and tried to focus on one, he hated the computer room mainly because it had a bunch of glowing objects and weird clicky buttons.

He tried to avoid the computer room as much as possible since he wasn't used to this much energy in one room. Being able to wield magic items for a long time and then being throw into a place where magic and something called 'electricity' both coexisting had thrown Mask off balance and gave him frequent headaches from the two energies.

Plus, the ability to function perfectly fine without 72 hours of rest had also messed him up a bit since there was no danger to propel him through the day. He sighed and closed his eyes, trying to ease the eye throbbing pain that was slowly creeping up on him and focused on trying to send the sign he made to the adventurers.

"Mask, we may have to get Father to come back." Hammer pointed to a screen which showed a picture of what used to be a cheery picture of oddly shaped planets floating in space to a distorted mess of darkness and sharp yellows and reds.

Mask groaned and tossed his sign away, "They aren't going to join the party peacefully. Are they?"

"Nope." Glacier zoomed in a bit using a controller and studied the three figures who were quietly plotting something, "It looks like they're going to war."

"Lovely." Mask glanced back at his monitor and quickly wrote on a new sign that had appeared. "Yup, they're going to hate us for this."

* * *

"We are out of the woods, right?" Shadow hovered around Geno nervously as Scourge once again did a lap around Mole Mountains that they had ended up at, fruitlessly searching for the door which never appeared.

"Yes, after this we went into the mountain to find the next star piece but the entrance seems to be sealed off." Geno frowned slightly and looked around.

Drawcia ignored all of them and pointed to the clouds which had slowly changed back to a cloudy white, "Yes Drawcia, we can see that the clouds went back to normal."

Vaati ignored the angry glare Drawcia was giving him since she wanted to know why they went back to normal and focused on Mallow who was happily jumping around for no real reason.

"Will you stop that?" Vaati snapped, "It serves no purpose and it's annoying!" Mallow happily landed besides Vaati and grinned, "I know, but it's fun to do!" and went back to jumping around.

Vaati was about to say more when Geno stopped him, "Let him have his fun, its better if he's in a neutral state than angry."

"What does that even mean?!"

Geno pointed to the sky which was completely clear and only showed the shining sun, "Let's just say that's Mallow has a very strong connection with the weather, to the point that it reacts to his emotions."

Vaati blinked and looked ready to murder everyone when Scourge came back, gritting his teeth at the fact that he had found nothing.

"Maybe the guy in charge of the door expects us to do more?" Shadow offered, he summoned a giant bomb and prepared to hurl it at the mines, "Like… Blow up this dumb mountain!"

Mallow was about to point out that might make the sign guy mad when a sign attached to an arrow lodged itself into to stone wall.

 **Sorry for the long wait, the original sign**

 **Dude rage quit after he got lost. So your stuck with me**

 **For the time being until he comes back, the door shall appear shortly, but the other three members are planning for war.**

They all started at the sign full of gibberish before Shadow started laughing, "How could the person in charge of this place get lost!" Shadow asked.

Vaati snorted and grumbled something about wanting to go back to his palace, while Mallow frowned and asked, "You two can read the sign?"

Vaati snickered, "What? You mean that you can't? How pathetic. It plainly says that the original person in charge of the sign left after he got lost trying to find us!"

Geno frowned but said nothing deducing that it was probably written in their language. Drawcia joined them and frowned when she realized that she couldn't exactly read what it was saying either.

"Really? Are you all blind? I never knew you all excelled in idiocy!" Vaati sneered, Scourge growled and was about to give Vaati a second knuckle sandwich for mocking him when they heard a faint distorted sniffle. Scourge stopped and looked at Drawcia who was slightly shaking, trying not to cry.

"Is she about to-" Vaati began to ask when Drawica let loose an unearthly screech and started bawling. Everyone quickly took step back as paint dripped to the ground and started twisting and withering as the world around her slowly turned into a painted mess.

 **"You just enjoy making the ladies cry, don't you Vaati?**

 **If you haven't realized the reason why they don't understand what I'm writing is because I'm writing in our language Hylian. Which they can't read. Now go say sorry to Drawcia :(**

Scourge glowered at the second sign that had appeared and watched Vaati's and Shadow's reaction,

"What!? I didn't do anything wrong!" Vaati protested while Shadow muttered, "Ohhh."

Geno glared at Vaati and tried to comfort Drawcia who was still wailing, "There, there Drawcia." Geno patted her head and pulled her into a hug, "He's just annoyed at the world because we can't find the next door that's all. He's not really calling us idiots because we can't read he's just venting." Drawcia blinked at him and pulled out her paintbrush and started painting the air sniffling slightly.

"See!" Vaati pointed at Geno who glanced at Mallow who was watching Drawcia paint, "He fixed the crybaby's problem!" a third sign fell from the sky and smacked Vaati on the head,

"I'm guessing that's the sign's way of saying you still have to do it." Scourge snickered.

Vaati gave him a glare full of venom and was about to call Scourge something when Shadow tapped his shoulder, "What! Now what is it!?" Shadow pointed to Drawcia who had finished painting and was beaming a hopeful look at Vaati.

"Did she just… Change the way Mole Mountain looked?" Mallow rubbed his eyes and looked around the now lilac sky and purple dirt floor which had ruby red flowers somehow growing out of the ground, where the mountain used to be a shiny metal purple and black door was there.

"Wow. She's a lot more powerful than I thought." Scourge mused, Drawcia smiled and nodded her head before looking at Vaati who was trying to figure out why there was so much purple. "I wonder what she's waiting for…" Geno mumbled.

Scourge frowned for a moment before he recognized that glint in Drawcia's eye, she was waiting for Vaati to give his opion on the world she made just for him.

And judging from the clearly baffled look on Vaati's face, he didn't see it. Then again, he could still be blinded by the color purple. Scourge bit back a sigh and said "Wow! What a lovely picture you painted Drawcia!"

Drawcia humbly blushed and wrung her hands, Scourge glanced over at Vaati and prodded him, "Wouldn't you agree Vaati? After all she painted this _just for you_." Vaati scowled at Scourge but managed to plaster a fake smile on his face, "Yes, it's very… Purple, Drawcia." Drawcia squealed and hugged Vaati who cringed and carefully hugged her back.

"Now can we please move on?" Vaati demanded when Drawcia let him go, a fourth sign fell from the sky and once again landed on Vaati's head.

Drawcia giggled and clapped her hands in amusement while Vaati silently seethed, "I think he's still mad at you since you didn't say sorry to Drawcia." Mallow guess.

"I've already apologized!" Vaati snapped, Drawcia frowned and shook her head no, "That complement was an apology Drawcia! And that's the closest thing you'll ever get from me!"

Drawcia thought that over for a while before she started to cry again. Mallow gave her a hug and gave Vaati a scolding glare.

"What!? I didn't do anything this time!" Vaati protested, "Not my fault she's a crybaby!" Geno glanced up at the sky which was quickly turning into a mess of black thunder clouds shooting sparks of electric."

"Vaati. say sorry to Drawcia. Right. Now!" Mallow ordered, Vaati sneered and smacked Mallow in the face with a gust of wind, "Oh please, now that I know what magic you use I can easily-,"

Vaati's crude remark was cut off by a bolt of lightning that hit Vaati head on. Turning him into a charcoal mage. Drawcia looked at Vaati and giggled, then she started jumping up and down pointing and laughing at Vaati's fate.

"I. Hate. This. Place." Vaati groaned, Shadow snickered as Drawcia started to paint a cartoon about what happened to Vaati, "Well. At least we know how to cheer her up, blast Vaati in the face with lighting."

"Shut up moron."

Shadow ignored Vaati and Geno hurriedly suggested that they should set up camp since it was getting dark, everyone grumbled in agreement and started looking around for somewhat helpful supplies to start a campfire.

Mallow had the bright idea of making it a game, whoever got the most wood would win. It shortly turned into a disaster after Vaati used his magic to trip Scourge who was using his super speed to explore the outskirts of the Forest Maze to get the most branches.

They got into an argument and broke most of their collected wood trying to murder each other, Drawcia ended up winning since she claimed that Geno was a piece of wood that she collected.

Her announcement focused Scourge and Vaati's anger on her claiming that Geno was a living being and didn't count and tried to beat her up instead. Their plan failed since Drawcia quickly painted a small landscape on the stone wall and jumped inside, protecting herself from their attacks.

By the time they finally got the fire started Shadow and Mallow were trying hard not to laugh at Vaati and Scourge's state since Drawcia had finally gotten feud up of having her pretty landscape getting destroyed by them and swapped their colors with her paintbrush.

Drawcia happily beamed a smirk at the now lilac hedgehog and the light green wind mage who were giving her the evil eye.

For a while the only sound was the logs slowly burning and Geno's joins creaking as he shifted his position trying to figure out a way to break the uncomfortable silence, finally Shadow broke it by asking "Sooo… does anyone have anything edible to eat?"

"No- oh wait!" Mallow picked up a random picnic basket that had appeared behind him he opened it and pulled out a bag of marshmallows, thin sticks and chocolate squares. "Does this count as food?"

"It would be if I could figure out what the heck it is." Shadow snatched the bag away from Mallow and tried one of the marshmallows. Scourge watched for a moment before saying, "It's edible, just put the white square on the stick and some chocolate squares together and put it over the fire."

"Really?" Mallow tried it and yelped when his poor marshmallow fell of and melted, becoming a slowly burnt mess on the ring of stones, Scourge snickered and demonstrated the proper way to do it after watching Shadow try to use his sword as a stick.

"Watch and learn noobs, this is how you roast a marshmallow." Scourge sneered, he created a s'more and stuck it in the fire, grinning as Mallow and Shadow watched with interest.

"Ta-da-ow!" Scourge dropped his s'more and fanned his tongue, trying to recover from the intense heat of his cooked s'more. Shadow howled with laughter while Mallow asked if he was okay.

"So, I presume that we let it cool first before we eat it?" Geno asked, trying not to laugh at Scourge's attempt to show off, Scourge grumbled yes and Mallow passed around the s'mores supplies.

Vaati huffily accepted his and used his magic to summon a small fireball in his hand, grumbling something about not in the mood to share or something dumb.

"Hey I think I got it!" Mallow pulled his stick back and blew on his s'more which was dripping gooey goodness, "See? Not that hard." Scourge snickered,

Mallow ignored him and took a bite out of his s'more. Geno hummed a little tune while cooking his carefully sitting behind the log he was using as a bench in order not to catch fire.

Shadow watched and gasped as Geno took a careful bite out his s'more. Geno sighed and gave a short explanation, "I'm still a living being, even if I am possessing a wooden body. Stars eat food too you know."

"Oh…"

Vaati sighed and put out the fire ball he had in his hand, probably to blast Shadow with, "Do you have any other brilliant questions, Shadow?" Shadow grinned and spun his sword in a circle, "Nope! But I bet you have the urge to strangle me right now!"

"How did you ever guess?"

"Your eye's twitching."

"It is?" Scourge examined Vaati who glowered at him, his right eye twitching contently, "I'm guessing you're still upset over earlier?" Geno questioned,

"Ohh no, me getting struck by lightning isn't anything to worry about." Vaati grumbled he fixed his hat and glared at a random tree as if he was trying to will it to burn.

Geno sighed and focused on Drawcia who was making random gestures to her paintbrush as if she was holding a conversation with it. Geno frowned trying to decide if she was treating it as an imagery friend because she was lonely or because it was truly alive.

"Drawcia, would you like me to make you a s'more?" Drawcia jumped and rapidly shook her head no. Surprising Geno slightly at the negative response.

"Aw come on! There yummy!" Shadow leaned forward and slowly waved his s'more back and forth as if trying to hypnotize her. "You know you want it."

Drawcia sadly shook her head no and gently pushed the s'more away, winching when some of the marshmallow stuck to her hand. She wiped it on the stump she was sitting on and went back to talking to her paintbrush with odd gestures.

Vaati studied her for a few moments before asking, "Drawcia, can you even speak?" Drawcia mournfully shook her head no and pointed to her bandana, "You're a mute?" Mallow asked, once again she shook her head no.

"Maybe it has to do with her title?" Scourge suggested, "Remember how the sign called her the forgotten painting?" Vaati and Shadow nodded while Drawcia looked away, "Maybe she could talk at one point but once she was forgotten she forgot how to?"

"Maybe… And maybe that's the same reason as to why we're all here." Vaati mused, Geno frowned and questioned Vaati's theory, "But how could we all be forgotten? Mallow and I still remember everything from our journey and you all seem to remember your past lives since you still know your skills and powers."

"I meant it in an object sort of way, Drawcia was a painting, and people forgot about her, I was sealed away in a sword for generations at a time and Shadow wasn't even known until Gannondorf rose to power." Vaati looked to the starry skies and murmured, "Perhaps in a way, people we once knew forgot about us."

They thought about this for a while before Scourge barked an uneasy laugh, "Oh please! I'm quite sure that my phony of an anti couldn't forget me! I turned both of our worlds upside down! Broke out the high classed jail and ruined his love life a couple times!"

"Scourge has a point, we've all done something memorable." Mallow argued, "We've saved the world, broke the world-,"

"Turned a powerful princess and an entire city into stone!" Vaati added, "Made a promise to never be forgotten!" Shadow interjected,

"And we all played an important role in a way." Geno murmured.

They all looked at Drawcia who had simply painted a picture dictating her argument, it was bleak, a simply painting of important looking people who were standing above a horrific monster, castle or basking in the glory of others and one by one they slowly faded away.

"Gee, that's awfully cheery." Shadow grumbled, Geno sighed and prepared for bed, "We should focus on the positives, like the fact that none of us have murdered each other yet and prepare for tomorrow."

"Agreed." Vaati muttered, Scourge halfheartedly put of the fire before copying the others and using the forest floor as a bed listening to the faint sounds of nature and examining the stars, _"We can't ALL be forgotten. Can we?"_ he risked a glance over to Shadow who was hugging a bow and arrow like a teddy bear, he was mumbling something in his sleep, probably about that promise he mentioned.

Scourge sighed and fell asleep joining the others in restless sleep and heavy hearts at the thought of being forgotten. None of them heard the faint sounds of footsteps as a ninja like person slipped into their little camp examining all of them before sadly fixing Drawcia's makeshift blanket.

The figure glanced to the sky trying to decide what to do next, before they slipped away playing gently on a lyre, _"Although you all seem to have a heart of evil, perhaps this shall ease your slumber."_

* * *

"Alright, did anyone else besides me have a dream about someone playing some weird instrument?" Scourge looked around and frowned when everyone nodded in agreement.

"It was a lyre…" Vaati yawned, "Perhaps someone else from our world is here?"

Geno frowned as he helped Drawcia up, she had accidently trapped herself in her blanket in the middle of the night, "If that's true, then shouldn't we have met already?"

"He has a point," Shadow did a couple practice swipes with his sword before resting, "I don't think anyone can come from the other side of the door besides us."

"Maybe they used magic?" Mallow offered, "And we can't sense it for some odd reason?"

"Unlikely." Vaati grumbled, he glared at the oddly shaped door which was in the shape of a star and gestured toward it, "So should we start exploring?"

"Yes, let's press on." Geno moved to open the door but Drawcia stopped him, shooting scared glares at the door, "Is something wrong Drawcia?" Geno tried to move past her but once again she stopped him, "Drawcia, you know we have to go through that door if we want to move on." Geno gently squeezed her hand promising, "I won't let whatever scares you hurt you. Okay?"

Drawcia whimpered but nodded in agreement, "Alright then, to adventure!" Mallow happily pulled the door open and yelped when a vortex pulled him inside, "Mallow!"

Geno lunged forward to try and save him while Drawcia tried to use a nearby tree as an anchor, Scourge watched as the swirling dark hole consumed Mallow. "Aw man!" Scourge watched as his favorite red sunglasses joined Mallow.

"My magic!" Vaati gasped as if whatever he was trying to do was draining the energy right out of him, "It's not working!"

"Is it me? Or is the swirling dark hole getting bigger?" Shadow paused in his attempt of using his sword to try and get away from the hole to yell back an answer to Scourge's question, "It's also getting more powerful!"

"I'm… Slipping!" Geno grunted. Drawcia screamed as the tree she was grabbing onto was uprooted and pulled into the hole, knocking Scourge and Vaati into hole as well, "Oh come onnnnnn!" Scourge shouted as Shadow quickly joined them screaming, "We're all going to dieee!"

Geno somehow managed to yell a warning as the entrance to the black hole abruptly appeared, sadly none of them heard and Geno was the only one who didn't nearly tumble off the edge of where they were.

"This is turning out to be a lovely morning!" Scourge grumbled as he held onto the red and yellow edge of land, Shadow and Vaati nodded in agreement as they held on for dear life. "I guess I didn't yell loud enough." Geno muttered, he helped them up before looking around,

"Where are we?" Vaati asked, "In the middle of nowhere?" Scourge offered. Geno nodded in agreement, there were barely any lights besides the looming darkness and the oddly colored floor which were red and yellow see through hexagons. Drawcia shuddered and hugged her paintbrush which was seemingly trying to break free of her grasp.

"Be careful where you step," Geno warned as he nearly fell through a floor panel. Drawcia nodded in agreement and carefully made her way to the front of the line gesturing for them to follow her.

Having no other choice in the matter they carefully followed her movements as she carefully walked around fake floor panels and painted rails for them to walk on.

"Hey look!" Shadow pointed up ahead where the color was slowly changing to a mess of greys and blacks, Mallow was lying on the floor. They quickly rushed to his side only to regret it when two walls closed down and the wall and floor started moving.

"It's a trap!" Vaati snarled, angrier at himself for not noticing than the others. "Great! Just great." Scourge kicked the wall in anger only to yelped and jumped back when his foot caused a ripple effect.

Geno shook Mallow awake and careful checked his surrounds, "Is something suppose to happen?" Geno questioned.

Drawcia nodded and tensed as if waiting for something, or someone to show themselves. Scourge looked up as a distorted giggle floated down toward them.

"Great, this person might be mute as well." Shadow grumbled,

"Is that a… Demon!?" Scourge gawked at the teenager who seemed to have dumped a can of white paint and other shades of color onto herself float down to them. She had black irises with a bright red background, her hair was short yet oddly styled being completely white with some touches of colors.

It was if she was posing as different elements all at the same time, with smooth jagged edges with icy blue colors to a fiery bang that seemed to be alive, or her electric styled ends with faint yellow and blue sparks or her earthy tips which seemed mostly normal.

Even her clothing seemed to mimic her hair, being pure white except for the ended of her dress, her right sleeve was a watery forest green which slowly changed to a pointed dark green while her left was a combination of spiky orange that seemed to be real spikes, pointed to the point of doing real damage.

The ends of the dress which was slit open near the waist mimicked her sleeves as well her boots. Scourge couldn't help but feel that her dark red silk belt seemed out of place of her entire outfit of rainbow colors. But said nothing to the possible demon.

"Well, well!" she floated toward Drawcia who winched and took a step back terrified of the strange lady, "The forgotten painting has come back to life, without my Masters power." She leaned forward an amused smile on her snow white face. "Interesting…"

"Back it up demon lady!" Scourge attempted to spin dash her but she playfully floated away, allowing herself to bounce into the wall before she spoke again. "I suggest you surrender now~! I'm untouchable!"

"We'll see about that!" Vaati hissed, he sent a downward gust in hopes of knocking her to the ground but she didn't even seemed bother by it, her dress and hair didn't even move. "Demon!" Scourge yelped, Vaati glared at him and snapped, "She's not a demon!"

"Then what is she then!?"

"A proud servant of the Dark Matter!"

Vaati and Scourge glared at the woman who simply giggled and happily bounced around the room some more, as if she was a rubber ball on slow mo.

"Alright, anyone got a plan?" Geno glared at Scourge and Vaati who opened their mouths to suggest something but were shot down when Geno added, "A plan that doesn't include everyone hurling attacks at the same time."

Shadow snickered and focused back at the enemy who was looking and bored and hover in one spot, Shadow noticed this and grinned, "I have an idea." He quickly melted into the floor and became a black blur as he sped up and the wall jumped at, prepared to slash down.

"Yes!" Shadow cheered, Vaati smirked and was about to complement Shadow on being somewhat useful when his sword bounced off and knocked him off balance, "What?!" Shadow yelped as he crashed to the ground

The girl giggled and spun around in a lazy circle while Geno rushed to catch the dazed warrior, "I told you~! You can't touch me~."

"You're really annoying!" Scourge growled, "Also, who the heck are you?!" the girl huffed and crossed her arms, she glanced down at Drawcia who was trying to nudge Mallow awake before answering, "I, am Miracle Matter but you may call me Miracle."

"…Miracle… Matter?" Vaati repeated, then he started laughing. Miracle frowned and lowered herself to the ground, "What's so funny?"

"Your name!" Vaati gasped, "There's nothing miracle about you!" Miracle sighed and floated back into the air, "Tsk, I'll have you know that my Masters named me this for a special reason."

"So they could make ridiculous puns about it?" Shadow asked, "Because, I'm pretty sure I can make a couple using your name."

"…You guys are jerks." Miracle spun around and happily chirped, "Which is why I get to get rid of all of you!" With a slight flourish of her hands a couple boulders appeared above her and dropped to the floor, they scattered as the rocks broke apart and bounced on the floor for a while before disappearing.

"Anyone got a plan?" Scourge asked as he dodged a couple remaining boulders, "Besides shooting her?" Shadow offered, Miracle laughed and encased herself in a glowing electric circle,

"I told you~ I'm untouchable!" she spun around and fired three lasers which lazily bounced around the arena, she laughed once more and joined the lasers. Shadow gritted his teeth and stepped into the shadows trying to avoid the bright lights.

Geno scowled and prepared a spell, "Geno Beam!" Miracle smirked and was about to taunt them once more by not moving out of the way when the beam sent her crashing to the ground, "Dogpile!" Scourge ordered, Vaati gave him a blank look before snapping, "How about we just hurl attacks at her!"

"That's what I- never mind."

Drawcia summoned a ball of paint and smacked it with her paintbrush while Vaati summoned a trio of fireballs and aimed them at Miracle who was trying to recover from the powerful beam attack, Shadow and Scourge took this opportunity to try and pin her down between magical attacks while Geno tried to wake Mallow up.

"I think we killed her!" Vaati said after a couple volleys, Shadow and Scourge stepped back to admire their defeated opponent when Miracle happily opened her eyes and giggled, "I think you guys need to chill out!" Scourge yelped as she encased herself in an ice cube and skated around the room while sending pointed ice spikes at them.

"How is she not dead?!" Vaati demanded as he floated above the death cube, "See! Demon!" Scourge yelled Geno frowned and picked Mallow up, trying to prepare himself to get out of the way when Miracle decided to go after him.

"Nope! No escape~!" Geno grunted and used his cloak to defend himself against the flying ice shards and Miracle as she destroyed her ice shield, "Geno! Look out!" Geno opened his eyes to see what Shadow was warning him about and froze when he found himself making eye contact with the grinning monster, she formed a fireball and happily said "Good bye." As two columns of flames appeared, one of them hitting Geno square in the chest.

"Oh come on! I was supposed to get a rematch!" Vaati threw his hands in the air and sent a tornado at her in hopes of dampening the flames, it didn't work as Miracle simply laughed and skipped toward him ignoring the fact that he was still in the air she simply rearranged her attacks to spin in a slow circle.

Scourge took this as an opportunity to search Geno's grave and to make sure that Mallow was alright. He frowned when he noticed that the entire area was scorched, not a single clue to show were Geno was.

"Up here!" Scourge looked up to see Geno holding onto Drawcia for dear life as she floated above the battle field a look of annoyed anger shining in her eye. Miracle slowed and gave Drawcia an amused look, "So you've finally decided to stop hiding and make yourself useful."

Drawcia scowled at her and slashed the air with her paintbrush creating a small rift in the moving dimension, "Tsk, it's a pity you sided with fools like these instead of obeying your masters." Miracle happily tilted her head and snickered, "Then again we could always… Persuade you with the gift of life."

Drawcia's answer to that was to paint a fireball and hurl it at Miracle who yelped and tried to defend herself with her flame shield. Geno was about to tell Drawcia that using the same element against each other didn't work when Miracle fell to the ground dazed.

Drawcia teleported to ground level and started waving her arms trying to tell them something, Vaati sighed and pointed to her paintbrush, "If you want to tell us something then you're going to have to paint it out moron."

Drawcia scowled at him and quickly painted a moving picture on the wall, Shadow poked his head out from the shadows long enough to watch a pink little ball creature walk around, inhale an enemy attack, copy it and then use it against whatever he was fighting.

"Is that the goody two shoes in your world Drawcia?" Scourge asked, Drawcia nodded and pointed to Miracle who was rubbing her head. Shadow grinned and jumped out of the shadows understanding what to do, "So we just use her own attacks against her. Shouldn't be too hard."

Vaati scowled and folded his arms reminding his minion with one important fact, "We can't copy powers like that puff ball can moron."

"Maybe we don't have to…" Geno mused, "We could just use our own attacks against her if there the right element, after all Drawcia and I managed to get a couple lucky hits on her already." Scourge nodded in agreement and gave Miracle a wicked grin who was glaring at them.

"Ready to surrender?"

Miracle stuck her tongue out and summoned to black blobs in her hand, she hurled one at them, forcing them jumped back as it bounced around for a bit before exploding.

"You know that would be a pretty devastating attack if we didn't know your plan!" Shadow jeered as he summoned a giant bomb and hurled it at Miracle who tried to get out of the way.

Only to be sent flying into the wall from the explosion, "Keep her down Shadow!" Vaati ordered as he focused on Mallow who was slowly coming to, Shadow obeyed and summoned smaller bombs and rapid fired Miracle with them who was screaming trying to avoid the onslaught.

"Annoying pests!" Miracle rolled away and made a slashing gesture with her hands, summoning a spikey shield that encased her, Shadow and Drawcia quickly backed away as the ball prepared to roll them over.

"I got this!" Scourge spin dashed toward Miracle who happily accepted his challenge and charged toward him.

"Ugh…" Mallow sat up and rubbed his forehead, trying to sooth the ranging headache he had, "Where are we…?"

Vaati looked around before answering, "In the middle of nowhere." Mallow was about to ask how they were in the middle of nowhere when Miracle launched some spikes toward them.

"She just doesn't know when to surrender." Geno murmured as he sidestepped out of the way, Drawcia nodded in agreement and teleported above Miracle to drop spike shaped projectiles.

Shadow slipped out of the shadows and snickered, "Think we should tell her to give up soon?" Vaati watched the battle of what appeared to be ping-pong before saying, "I give it a couple more minutes."

Geno nodded in agreement and prepared a spell while Mallow asked, "Is there any way we can help?" Shadow shook his head and leaned on his sword, "We can't attack her unless we use the same element that she's using."

"That… Doesn't make any sense."

"We know." Shadow yawned as Scourge pulled out of the fight yelling, "She's changing attacks!"

Vaati summoned a small tornado in his hand and evilly grinned, "Hopefully it will be a wind element."

"Wrong~!" Miracle summoned a chainsaw like sword and swing it in the air, summoning smaller green chainsaws that quickly charged toward the group. Geno and Mallow blasted it out of the air while Vaati unsheathed his sword and charged forward with Shadow by his side.

"I'm not losing that easily!" Miracle declared she took a swipe at Vaati who jumped back while Shadow charged forward, phasing right past her attack. Miracle gasped and tried to defend herself but failed.

"Annnd that's game." Scourge dusted himself off as Miracle crumpled to the floor, quivering as Vaati and Shadow took a couple cheap shots before deciding that she was done.

"Now then, how about you take us to your Master so we can beat the stuffing out of him." Scourge said, Miracle glared up at him and muttered something under her breath before glaring at Drawcia who was happily painting a door and some rope.

Geno offered her a hand to help her up. Miracle accepted it and grumbled something as Drawcia happily tied her up and lead her to the door like a dog. Scourge grinned and followed them, "Now we're getting somewhere!"

"Yea, but where is here?" Mallow asked, he shivered when he noticed the drastic change in scenery, now the landscape was pitch black with faint glowing stars forming faint outlines of something. He couldn't even see the floor beneath him.

"We are now entering the Dark Star, one of my masters' arenas." Miracle explained, "Don't worry about falling off, Master deiced to place invisible walls to see how long it would take you to find the exit."

"Why would he put invisible walls up?" Geno asked, Miracle smiled and tilted her head toward Shadow who had just ran into one, "Not… Cool!" Shadow grunted as he tried to pull himself off the wall.

"Master also made it stick to fabric. Just to enjoy your misery." She giggled and jumped up and down as Shadow glared at her, or tried to since he was still stuck to the wall.

"Nice to see that your boss has a sense of humor." Scourge grumbled. Miracle gasped in horror and angrily demanded, "You take that back right now rat!" Scourge glowered at her and snapped, "I'm a hedgehog! Not a rat!"

"Don't care! You're a rat until you take that back!"

"What?! I would totally pull a prank like this if-,"

"Rat! Rat! Green dude's a rat!"

"Shut up!"

"Ratty rat, rat! Scourge is a rat!"

"Why you little!" Scourge tackled her while Geno and Vaati gave them a disapproving glare.

"How about we ignore Miracle until we reach our destination." Geno suggested, Miracle happily kicked a foot in the air and chirped, "I like that idea!" before Scourge attempted to strangle her with the rope.

"Hey, when did your colors go back to normal?" Mallow asked, Vaati glanced down at his outfit which was indeed back to normal and frowned, "Not completely sure."

"Scourge is still a rat!" Miracle sang earning an annoyed glare from Scourge, "Why the fudge won't she die!?" Miracle happily answered his question with, "Because I am immortal!" And started to hum.

* * *

Mask watched the scene unfold from the glowing screens and laughed as Shadow finally unglued himself and offered to use his sword to shut Miracle up.

"I'm back!" Mask glanced back at Father who had finally deiced to reappear and do his job, "So? Whadda I miss?" he leaned forward and quickly examined the pictures showing before snapping his gaze back to Mask, "Well, the Dark Matter Trio managed to twist your world into their own and set up their own rules. So far Team Data has defeated Miracle Matter."

Father nodded and giggled as Scourge once again tried to strangle Miracle after she had lead them into an invisible wall, "Nice to see that there all getting along." Then he frowned when he noticed a slight hint of movement behind Team Data, "Who's that?"

Mask frowned and studied the glowing screen before he had to rub his eyes. "It looked like… Sheik." He quickly checked the data log that Glacier and Hammer had left for him and his frown increased, "There's no sign that she came on the train. Or when she entered."

Father sighed and was about to force Sheik to appear in the monitor room when he stopped and gave Mask a knowing smirk, "Well then, looks like we're going to need an extra setting for her. Or him. Never can figure out Sheik's gender."

Mask nodded and got up from the desk chair to prepare for their surprise guest, Mask couldn't help but feel a wave of unease from Sheik's appearance.

Sheik had helped him out on his journey and they had battled a couple times in Melee but now… Now he couldn't help but wonder why Zelda would put herself at risk by following two known and dangerous villains of Hyrule.

Surely she remembered his story of battling his own shadow or the myths of the dreaded wind mage that had been passed down in the royal castle. She had even explained it to him after he accidentally discovered a book about the four sword.

Mask sighed and pulled out the bunny hood and placed it on his head, he wasn't in the mood to bump into Howler who was growing more and more agitated that he hadn't been sent out to the field and had been picking fights with everyone, including Reptile who was also itching for battle and considered a friend toward Howler.

Then again, everyone had been on edge. Dying for a chance to attack their replacement or copy. Mask hated to admit it but he couldn't help but feel a pang of cold anger that he was forced to spend his time reliving three days of saving the world only to find out that you couldn't save anyone.

 _"You've met with a terrible fate. Haven't you?"_

 _"Shut up."_ Mask shook his head and changed his course to the training arena. Claus and Lucas were already there practicing on a black sandbag in the corner. Mask ignored them and focused on a second black sandbag and mercilessly began slicing it into pieces.

* * *

"We're here~!" Miracle happily jumped around, ignoring the angry glares that everyone was giving her, "Alright. We're here. Great, where's that dumb master of yours?" Scourge growled.

Geno was about to suggest that they take this opportunity to rest before fighting once more when a monotone voice dully answered Scourge's question.

"I'm up here."

Scourge looked up and snorted, "So you're a demon, just like Miracle."

Vaati glared at Scourge and hissed, "He is not a demon!" Scourge ignored him and focused on the teenager who seemed to be Miracle's age standing on a sharp vine that was serving as a pillar, he had a similar get up like Miracle only less colorful.

He wore a simply white shirt and white pants, the only colors being a crimson red for the v neck and tattered pant leg which moved gently in the stale air.

He wore a long white and red robe which was being held together with a loose red belt with small crystals being used as belt buckles, the ends of the robe curved in to form a dull spike.

A small ragged red cape lay flat on his shoulders, also being held together with a crystal, his completion was like Miracle's, pure white skin and an eye slightly swollen with the color of blood. Scourge couldn't make out the second eye since it was covered with grey bandages.

"Who are you?" Geno asked, the figure gave a smile that seemed bored, "I am 02,second general of the Dark Matter." He summoned a small dull halo and pointed it Miracle's face, "And once again Miracle, you have failed." Miracle nodded in agreement and tried her best to look upset. 02 frowned and lazily tossed his halo in the sky before catching it.

"Then again, that was your purpose in life. At least someone accepts it." 02 focused his gaze on Drawcia who tensed and tried to hide behind Mallow, "Unlike some paintings…"

"What the heck are you talking about punk?" Scourge cracked his knuckles and did a couple of quick stretches, "I suggest you shut up and get ready to fight before I lose my patience!"

02 ignored him and jumped down summoning a pair of oddly shaped wings that looked like tiny foam ovals with even smaller red tear drops floating above the ovals. He landed gracefully and gave Scourge a bored look, "Funny, the sinner wishes to add more to his list of tragedies."

"What are you talking about?!" Scourge took a step forward and raised a fist to his face, "Alright pal I'm giving you the chance to surrender now instead of getting-," with a bored 'tsk' 02 took a step back and hurled his halo at Scourge.

Sending him flying into the wall. Scourge wheezed and slid to the floor, "Feel free to start helping." He coughed,

Vaati snickered and summoned a fireball in his hands, "Prepare to die fool!" Vaati shouted as he sent a trio of fireballs at 02, Geno watched to see what he would do and was surprised to see 02 sidestep and return fire with five small glowing crystals which blew up and separated.

"Geno Whirl!"

"Thunderbolt!"

02 frowned and encased himself in a spinning crystal, which easily nullified Mallow and Geno's attacks, "Interesting," 02 mumbled, "The same thing that brought my downfall is now protecting me."

"Well can it protect you from this?" Shadow swung his sword and unleashed a wave of dark energy which slightly damaged 02 shield.

"Keep at it Shadow! He seems to have a lower defense then Miracle does!" Geno advised, Miracle frowned but said nothing.

Drawcia nodded in agreement and tried to mimic Shadow's attack with her paintbrush, only she unleashed waves of paint instead of dark magic. Vaati and Scourge worked to pin 02 down on the floor or tried to, since Vaati would send gusts of wind to knock Scourge off balance whenever he tried to use his homing attack.

"Knock it off Vaati!" Scourge snarled after he had nearly crashed into a spike covered vine, Vaati gave him an innocent look and asked, "Knock what off?"

"You know what I mean wind dork!" Scourge tackled him and they began rolling around on the floor hurling insults and punches at each other. 02 watched with interest before glancing at Geno who was shaking his head in disgust. "Do they always act like this?"

"50% of the day." Geno replied with a sigh. He studied 02 who seemed to enjoy watching Vaati and Scourge roll around on the floor, Geno couldn't tell since he barely had any expression besides a dull smile and an interested glint in his eye.

"Mallow, do you know any of his weakness?"

Mallow shouted, "Psychopath!" then frowned saying, "I can't see his health but he seems to be worried about something getting in his eye or someone aiming for his eye."

Geno frowned and examined 02 much closer, taking in the puffiness around his eye, as if it was irritated or was swelling from a past injury.

Geno glanced at Miracle who seemed to be biting her lip, as if trying to stop herself from warning her master or cheering him on as he resumed the fight, firing multiple explosions at Drawcia who teleported away from them as quickly as she could.

"Alright then," Geno pointed at 02 and shouted, "Geno Beam!" he watched as 02 turned around to see what the attack was only to realize that the beam was aiming straight for his eye.

"NOOOOooo!" Geno and Mallow cringed at 02's screech of pain and then winched when his body nearly became a shish kabobs on the platform he had appeared on. "Master!" Miracle rushed to his side and nudged him, whimpering softly as 02 clutched his eye moaning from the pain.

"Oh I see!" Scourge shoved Vaati off of him and threw his hands up, "The one time something bloody happens I'm busy dealing with the stupid witch!"

"Witch?!" Vaati summoned a fireball and grabbed Scourge's jacket pulling him closer to the flames, "Call me a witch one more time and I'll burn your stupid smug grin right off your face peasant!" Scourge growled and the fight resumed.

"Bloody?" Geno frowned and bent down in an attempt to examine 02's eye, 02 flinched but willingly moved his hand away. Drawcia made a strangled choking noise as she noticed how much red liquid was dripping off of his hand. Geno paled and felt his wooden joints go numb as he realized that 02 was bleeding. And losing a lot of blood fast.

Geno turned to Mallow who seemed sick, probably never seen anyone else lose blood before "Mallow-"

"On it." Mallow used Hp rain while Miracle attempted to sooth her Master with comforting words, "There, there Master. You'll feel better in no time-," KABOOM!

Miracle fell backward and scrambled away from 02 who had endured the agonizing pain of getting shot in the eye long enough to fire an explosion at Miracle.

"How many times have we told you," 02 hissed, "Not to comfort others?"

Miracle sat up and cheerfully said, "Over eight thousand times master!" then she flinched and tried to frown, "I'll… Face the wall now." 02 gave her a hard glare before he winched and went back to nursing his eye.

"We? Who else is there besides you two freaks?" Geno jumped, and turned around to see a bruised Vaati and Scourge glaring down at 02, who bluntly refused to answer Scourge's question.

Vaati scowled at him and glared around the room, trying to find Shadow who had vanished after Geno had used Geno Beam. Vaati founded him examining a door and carefully poking the handle which was shaped like a black star.

"Well at least we can leave this place." Vaati grumbled, he started to move forward when Drawcia stopped him and gestured to 02 who had finally allowed Geno to manually heal him after he summoned a crystal shield to hide from the rain. Vaati scowled but waited for them to tie up the drama king and clean up most of the blood before he swiftly went to join Shadow.

They entered the next room which seemed outside since a dark blue sky with twinkling yellow stars greeted them, Drawcia tensed and hide behind Geno while Mallow went to examine some odd flowers that were growing nearby.

"Uh, is there anything here?" Scourge asked, "Since all I see is a random meadow and a random mountain." 02 scowled at Scourge and gestured toward the nearly invisible stairs. "Our master is waiting at the top of this 'random' mountain."

Vaati groaned and put a hand to his forehead, "Whoopee, more climbing." Miracle giggled and tried to clap her hands, "Climbing's fun!"

02 glowered at her and ordered "Shut up Miracle." Before examining the night sky. "Well, we might as well get started." Geno said.

"Or, we could simply blow up the mountain!" Shadow offered, he summoned a giant bomb and hurled it at the base of the mountain before Geno could say no.

It exploded and forced everyone to hit the floor as debris flew over their head. When everything had quieted down Vaati coughed and glared at Shadow who was happily laughing at the mayhem he had caused, "Why is the answer to everything bombs!?" Vaati demanded.

Shadow grinned and summoned bombs the size of a cherry tomato and tossed them in the air, "Because, they solve everything." Scourge and Mallow glowered at Shadow who were unlucky enough to get hit by smaller pieces of rock when an emotionless voice droned, "Really. Perhaps Miracle Matter should have used more bombs against you."

Shadow looked up, squinted past the dust and screamed when he managed to make out a single red eye with red markings that looked like a child version of the sun painted above and below his eye. Shadow scrambled away as the figure stood up and tilted his head.

"What's wrong." The figure took a step forward, wobbling a bit before he fell to the floor, landing on his hands and knees. "I thought you enjoyed jokes."

Shadow nervously laughed before he melted into the shadows, terrified by the childish and empty attitude the man had.

And it didn't help that he was just as pale as Miracle and 02 and had similar clothing to 02, only his robe was a bit longer, covering his hands completely, and his satin edges were a brighter red. If it wasn't for the aura of emptiness Scourge felt, he would have laughed and joked about his long white hair.

"Master." The man slowly got up and glanced at 02 who was attempting his best to bow while being tied to Miracle. "Oh, 02 you and Miracle have failed." 02 nodded and gestured toward Scourge who was trying to stay calm even though he felt like he was being watched by Crazy Rosie.

"So the never ending circle of despair continues, thanks to these brutes."

"Hey! We are not brutes!" Mallow protested, the man ignored him and drifted toward Scourge who was really wishing that Geno was picked to be the chosen leader.

But he still stuck his hand out in an attempt to seem friendly, "My name's Scourge." The man studied his hand before glancing at 02 and Miracle who seemed to be confused by Scourge's gesture.

"Oh for crying out loud. It's a handshake!" Scourge grabbed his robe sleeve and shook it before using it to slap him in the face.

"…Oh… I'm Zero."

"Well it's nice to meet you Zero!" Mallow chirped, Zero made a hissing noise and glowered at Mallow who made a squeaking noise and joined Drawcia. "So ignoring the fact that you all have no ideas what a hand is." Scourge gestured toward his group and gave a brief explanation of what they were doing.

"So… In order to find answers. We need to join your party." Zero said after a moment of considering Scourge's story. "Yup!" Shadow jumped out of the shadows and jabbed the air a couple times with his sword. "We're all lost at the moment so getting answers is the only real way out."

Geno nodded in agreement and gave his two cents appealing to Zero's villainous side, "You might also get a chance to get revenge on whoever defeated you." Zero thought for a moment before glancing at 02 and Miracle before making his verdict.

"No."

"No!?" Vaati jumped up and tried to strangle Zero who happily didn't fight back, "What do you mean no!?"

"I mean no." Zero folded his arms and gave the group a disgusted look, "A party sounds too happy."

"Well, that's what people call a group of adventures, a party since everyone is usually on good terms with everyone." Geno clarified, Zero made a small scowl and scooted away from them, Miracle and 02 following him closely like obedient puppies.

Scourge threw his hands up and was about to use his best tactic since smooth talking wasn't working, when Mallow beat him to the punch by asking, "What's wrong with being happy?"

Zero shuddered at the word happy and 02 gave Mallow a look as if he has said a curse word, "Everything's wrong with it. Why look positively on a bleak outlook." Zero shudder once more and looked up at the night sky, "Negativity solves everything. Especially Dark Matter."

"Dark Matter?" Shadow frowned, "You guys aren't from the shadows."

"Of course not, we're from up there." Zero pointed up to the night sky and a small growing orb of darkness appeared covering the twinkling stars. Drawcia whimpered loudly and pulled her hat over her eyes as large clumps of darkness drifted toward Zero slowly forming an eye and circle.

They hovered obediently over Zero and 02 waiting for an order. Zero glanced back at Mallow with a bored look and gave a dull explanation, "I am the first in command of the Dark Matter, 02 was the second in command/leader after my death and Miracle Matter was simply a decoy to halt the annoying pink ball from ruining our plans."

"Well that explains how Miracle has two masters." Scourge grumbled, Shadow nodded in agreement and warily eyed the black circles, "If we're getting into a fight then we're going to have some trouble." Miracle laughed and chirped, "Of course you're going to have some trouble! We're unstoppable!"

"Miracle what have we told you about being happy." Miracle cringed and looked down at her feet, ashamed that she had once again disobeyed her masters will. Zero made a small half smile and nodded his approval.

Mallow frowned and took a step forward, "You know, it's not that bad to feel happy or any other positive emotion."

"It's not." Zero tilted his head, a flicker of confusion crossing his blank face. "Nope! You need a hug!" and with that Mallow jumped forward and tackled Zero in a hug. Zero shuddered and looked at Mallow with horror before he tried make him let go. When that didn't work Zero started screaming for his comrades' help.

Vaati rolled his eyes in disgust, "It's just a hug, he'll let go after a couple seconds." Zero ignored him and screamed when Drawcia noticed something and decided to join the hug fest as well.

Scourge snickered then started laughing as the Dark Matter frantically tried to pull off Mallow and Drawcia who were holding for dear life, "Pathetic!" Vaati sneered, "It's just a hug!"

Shadow snickered and pointed at Zero who was thrashing around like a desperate fish. Geno was about to scold them and force Drawica and Mallow to stop when he noticed something.

"Is he… Taking damage from the hug?"

Scourge followed Geno's gaze and giggled when he saw the damage counter slowly turn into 55%, 56% then it jumped to 60% when Drawcia tightened her hold on Zero. "You have got to be kidding." Scourge wheezed,

"Get them off! Get them off! Get them off!" Zero wailed, Scourge sighed, shooed the Dark Matter crowd away and pulled Mallow and Drawcia off of Zero who curled into a shivering ball, whimpering slightly. Scourge sneered down at him and poked Zero with his boot, "Now do you wanna join our party?"

Zero whimpered and eyed Mallow and Drawcia carefully, "If you don't then I'm quite sure that Drawcia wouldn't mind giving you one last hug." Scourge added, shaking Drawcia a little who nodded in agreement and made a hugging gesture.

Zero's eye widened in fear and he quickly nodded and made a feeble squeaking noise which could have been a yes, but he passed out before Scourge could get him to repeat what he said.

"Well at least we can leave." Vaati grumbled, displeased that he hadn't gotten the chance to torture Zero himself. Geno glared at him and untied 02 and Miracle who quickly pulled their unconscious master to his feet.

"And now the fun part!" Shadow pointed to a golden door which was labeled exit, "More walking!"

Everyone groaned while Miracle happily asked, "What's does the word walking mean again?"

After what felt like hours the ragtag group finally made it to something that wasn't complete darkness, and stepped into a gleaming foyer, which looked extremely welcoming with its many fluffy throw pillows and blankets, a dull fire crackled a bright orange then a soothing blue. Scourge couldn't help but relax and collapse on a beanbag which happily accepted him, he heard Vaati give a moan of pleasure as he collapsed on a pile of pillows.

"This place even has cookies!" Mallow squealed, he grabbed a couple and offered one to Miracle who carefully took it and bit into it. Zero and 02 ignored her and began poking the fire with pillows, curious to see what would happen.

Geno examined a shiny oak bookcase and grabbed a book labeled, "Smash Bros History." And made himself comfortable in a sitting chair with a steaming cup of mint tea.

Drawcia happily raced around the room examining random paintings while Shadow studied an odd picture of butterflies before he stabbed it with his sword.

"Why couldn't the moron just summon us all here instead of having waste our time?" Vaati mumbled as he happily hugged a satin violet pillow. "Because he enjoys suffering." Zero reasoned.

Geno looked up from his book and gently chastised him, "Not everyone enjoys pain and suffering Zero, plus he could have done it to see our reactions to meeting everyone." Zero gave a small scowl and went back to setting pillows on fire.

Scourge adjusted his shades so he up at Drawcia who was hovering over him, "What is it Drawcia?" she gestured toward the other door which was rather plain compared to the golden and teal door they had entered.

"We'll check it out later, after everyone's rested." Scourge grumbled, he was really in the mood for a nap and Drawcia hovering over him wasn't helping.

"Miracle! Stop hogging all the cookies!" Mallow desperately chased Miracle around the room who was happily attempting to set the tray on fire, "Neh!" she stuck her tongue out and hurled the tray into the flames. Taking pleasure in Mallow's distraught expression.

"Don't worry, I brought extra."

Scourge groaned and looked at the door to see a kid wearing a green tunic with two random belts place a tray on the coffee table. Scourge couldn't help but stare when he noticed the green hat that resembled Shadow's.

He also couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by the older glint the boy had in his tired blue eyes or the unkempt style of his dirty blonde hair as if he was too busy acting older than his age to take proper care of himself.

He managed to pull his gaze away when Vaati made a sound between an angry gurgle a hiss before he pointed at the boy and managed to snarl, "You!" while Shadow glanced at the boy and gasped, "Green?"

The boy showed no emotion at the fact that he was surrounded by an old enemy and possible a friend and calmly said, "I would prefer if you would call me Mask, for the time being."

"Mask?" Vaati stood up and unsheathed his sword, a look of crimson hate burning in his eyes, Drawcia uneasily stepped away from Vaati's pillow pile since his eyes seemed to be glowing red.

Mask nodded and casually pulled out his own sword, which seemed perfect for someone his age but dramatically put the odds in Vaati's favor since own sword was much longer in reach.

"You don't fool me for a second child!" Vaati spat, Geno glanced up and froze when he saw the icy cold hatred which slowly grew in Mask's eyes as Vaati kept talking, Scourge grinned and rubbed his together as they slowly circled each other,

"You aren't going to take me down for the third time!"

"Third time?" Shadow mumbled then he realized what he meant.

Mask carefully chose his words saying, "Although you have met me eons ago, it wasn't me in a sense, it was a different timeline version of me."

"Oh really? You share the same color and height! Don't think you're going to get away with this!" and with that Vaati lunged forward and slashed at Mask who easily sidestepped and tripped Vaati with his foot.

Vaati somehow managed to recover and hurled a gust of wind at Mask who pulled out a mirror shield with a terrified expression etched into the glass. Scourge whistled when Mask braced himself until the winds had passed and easily deflected Vaati's attack once more,

"Ha!" Vaati swiped again and sneered at him, "You weren't expecting me to play by your rules, now were you?"

A bitter smile appeared on Mask's face as he counteracted and kicked Vaati square in the chest, "I was expecting that. Since I'm with the very same person who gave you that sword."

Vaati growled and slashed the air, summoning tornadoes that ravaged the room, "Aim at him moron! Not us!" Scourge yelled as he dove behind his beanbag for cover.

Of course Vaati ignored him and continued fighting. Mask easily blocked and counterattack each of Vaati's attack inching forward after each blow. He soon managed to trap him in a corner with his shield. Vaati snarled and forced the winds to push Mask away and attack him mercilessly.

"Would you like to beg for mercy now?" Vaati grinned maliciously and spat, "Child?"

Mask laughed, startling Vaati since the laugh sounded so childish and out of place for a being who was being tortured. Vaati dropped him on the coffee table and tried to regain his composer.

Mask giggled and swapped his small sword for a longer, and sharper sword that was decorated with golden diamonds, "You've met with a terrible fate. Haven't you?"

Vaati yelped as Mask charged forward attacking with new strength.

 _"No."_ Vaati realized, _"He was holding back all along!"_ he ducked and encased himself in a tornado of winds, hoping that Mask would back off long enough for him to fire a couple fireballs at him.

But Mask didn't back down, he whipped out a bow and a glowing arrow that sent danger chills down Vaati's spine as he recognized that holy light. "Light arrows." He jumped to the side and summoned some sentorarions to use as shields, they were pretty annoying since they could hover around and fire laser beams at whoever Vaati was mad at.

Mask easily shot them down before switching back to his sword and lunging for Vaati. Vaati tried to move out of the way but tripped over a lounge chair and managed to defend himself a blast of wind. Mask jumped back, earning a silent curse from Vaati once realized that he was agile as well as strong.

"Do you surrender?"

Vaati stubbornly glowered at Mask and snapped, "Not in your life child!" Mask said nothing and allowed a flicker of ice cold hatred to dance across his face before he pulled out the light arrows. Vaati snorted and was about to taunt him for using a bow n arrow when someone shoved him off the couch.

"Ah-ah-ah~" A voice gently chided, "There's no need to kill anyone." Everyone tore their gaze away from Vaati who scrambled away from the couch to glower at the person who had so nicely shoved him off the couch.

Mask growled slightly and put his sword away, muttering loud enough for the man to hear, "We wouldn't be killing anyone if you would stop being dramatic."

Zero frowned slightly, "But… Killing bring pain and suffering." The man sighed and took a cookie from the tray, "But drama makes everything exciting!"

"And annoying." Vaati grumbled, then he glared at the man and snapped, "Who are you anyway! And why are we all here!"

"Yea!" Scourge jumped up and shoved a fist in front of the man's teal blue eyes, "Start talking before I give you a knuckle sandwich." The man laughed and pushed Scourge's hand out of the way, "Now, now. The answers shall come shortly."

"Can the first answer be your name?" Mallow asked, the man thought for a bit before saying, "Well I can't tell you my full name, or the titles I usually go under since you would kill me, so you may call me Ta, for the moment."

"Ta?" Geno repeated, Ta nodded and waved his hand, "Pleasure to meet you in the digital code." Everyone expect Scourge gave Ta dumbfound expressions which Ta quickly waved away, "Never mind, you'll figure it out after a few days here." He snapped his fingers and everyone was quickly sitting on one side, Ta and Mask sitting across them on a smaller couch.

Scourge tensed when he realized he was sitting in-between Shadow and Vaati, but loosened up slightly when he noticed the uncertain glare Vaati was giving Ta.

 _"Good. He's being cautious as well."_ Scourge glanced back at Ta who was offering Miracle a cookie and frowned slightly, recognizing the obvious signs of smoozing.

He tensed when Ta spoke, "Well, long and overly complicated story short, you are all forgotten characters and villains" For a brief moment the only sound came from the fireplace before an outcry of protest shattered the stunned silence. Ta waited for them to calm down before he continued.

"Or to be more informative, your creators have forgotten you, you all still have a small fan base."

"Fan base!? Creators?! Speak English!" Shadow demanded.

Ta sighed and a wall of images appeared behind him, slowly spinning in a circle as brand names and their pictures below certain brand names appeared.

"You see, I have chosen you eight since you were the oldest forgotten characters from video games or in Scourge's case, comics, that I could bring here safety without a mess of glitches." Ta explained, "Which is why a couple of you seem different than the pictures displayed behind me."

Scourge studied the Dark Matter trio's original form and shuddered, he also found Drawcia's to be a bit creepy as well.

"I gave you redesigns thanks to a happy fan-girl who so seemed to find all of you interesting characters and used your old coding to bring you here." Ta waved the coding part away and hurriedly continued. "I also tweaked your battle style to be more balanced for the upcoming battles."

Geno frowned and questioned "Upcoming battles? What battles?" Ta grinned and jumped up from his seat with a flourish and pointed to a new wall of photos which appeared in front of the fireplace, the villains growled slightly when they saw the person who had so easily defeat them onscreen.

"You see, I too am a forgotten character, or a forgotten boss who was forced to rot away in the data codes and numbers." Ta pointed to a photo showing a teenager wearing a similar tunic to Mask and Shadow only a shade dark posing with a princess with long brown hair.

"Those are only a couple of fighters who defeated me. And after being permanently 'erased' I thought up a plan which would redeem other forgotten fighters who weren't allowed to join and myself by taking back which was rightfully ours."

"And that's where we come in." Zero guessed, he frowned and folded his arms, "And your using the bait of getting a second chance at defeating our heroes as the prize."

"Yup!" Ta pointed to a pink little puffball who was chasing around a dog, earning a slight growl from Drawcia and some graffiti. "And of course the chance to be recognized as the truly great heroes and villains you are."

"And if we say no?" Ta glanced at Scourge who was giving him a bored glare trying not to seem interested, "Then you can simply wander about my little castle since I can't return you back to your home worlds."

"And if we were to accept, then what would be out first mission?" Shadow asked, Ta grinned and with a snap of his fingers the pictures disappeared and were replaced by a title written in bold, **"Attack of The Clones."**

"Sadly this first plan only requires five people since we're just giving them a taste of our power." Ta clarified when he noticed the excited glint in Miracle's eyes, she deflated slightly and crossed her arms.

"As the name states, I'll be sending in people who are called 'clones' by the fan base and company who created the 'clones' based on their skill, attack style and appearance." Ta pushed the first picture away revealing the lucky soldiers who were going to partake in the mission.

"Scourge, Mask, Shadow, Vaati and Howler will go, Vaati however has a slightly different mission which requires you retrieving a gun I used to turn people into trophies and capturing Mr. Game n Watch." Ta pointed to a flat black stick character who was attacking someone with random meats from his frying pan.

Vaati snorted and pointed to himself, "In case you haven't noticed, I don't look like anyone in that place and I am no clone of that failure of a dark wizard!"

"Yes, but you will have a somewhat easier time sneaking around thanks to your… Original homeland." Ta pulled Vaati forward and placed him on the table, "Don't worry!" Ta reassured, "It won't hurt! You'll just feel a murderous rage toward me."

"That didn't make sense Ta." Mask mumbled.

Ta ignored him and waved his hands, Vaati was about to protest when he suddenly vanished. "Don't worry! He's still here." Ta pulled out a magnifying glass and placed it over the spot Vaati once was.

Geno and Scourge looked and gasped when they saw a purple mouse like creature wearing a tiny version of Vaati's outfit jumping up and down angrily screaming.

"Is that Vaati…?" Shadow asked, 02 confirmed Shadow's thoughts with a simple, "He still has that aura of smugness around him, so I'm guessing yes. Although I can't really see him…"

"Vaati was originally a Minish, which are tiny mice like humans, only children can see them since they still believed in the folktales. Vaati is different since he was learning magic as an apprentice and was entranced by the evil in the hearts of men, which made him still a magical hat which can grant wishes and attempted to become the most powerful person ever."

Ta took a breath and waved his hands once more to return Vaati to his normal size.

"I. Hate. You." Vaati spat, he was trembling badly and looked ready to strangle Ta who happily waved hello.

"Is that all?" Miracle asked, Ta opened his mouth, paused as if thinking about something and glanced at Mask who sighed and pointed to Scourge, "You didn't inform Scourge his part in the mission."

"Oh right." Ta beamed a sly grin at Scourge who placed his muddy boots on the table as an act of rebellion, "You Scourge get a job I would rather do myself,"

"So why don't you?" Mallow asked, he flinched from the cold glare Ta gave him and quickly tacked on, "Since you seem to know a lot about us and those things you call codes, how come you just can't waltz in and mess everything up?"

"Because my dear Mallow, I was never a playable character, unless someone hacked the game and even then I was extremely glitchy and unstable since I was only supposed to be used for a couple moments." Ta paused and showed a picture of an extremely HD stage from Smash 4, Drawcia made a cooing sound and tried to touch it, frowning when her hand went through it.

"Plus, the creators have upped the graphics and data along with their new system which is a complete maze than the one I appeared on, it's hard enough changing everyone's coding to prevent any major damage whenever they step foot into the battle field or the living quarters."

Ta finished, he sighed and once again ignored the confusion looks he got from his tech speech and went back to focusing on Scourge.

"Now then," Ta grinned and rubbed his hands as a picture of Sonic appeared on screen, Scourge flinched but quickly recovered, trying his best to ignore how happy his counterpart was showing, that he was the strongest as he battled a wolf like creature with glowing palms.

"You see I have a slight grudge against that blue pest." Ta said, his voice dripping with hatred.

Mask sighed and glanced around the room as the warm colors melted away. Scourge sneered and said "So? Everyone has a grudge against Mr. _Hero."_

Ta laughed but it wasn't too hard to notice that the playfulness from before was gone, replaced with bitter hatred.

"Yes, I'm quite aware of that, but my grudge is a bit more… Permanent since I have consent reminders of what he did to me." Ta laughed again and drifted around the room, until he was standing behind Scourge. Scourge glared up at him but didn't bother to hide his interest in his story this time.

"You see, I was gifted with lovely wings, they were chaotic, multi-color and gave me the power to make everything sooo much easier." Ta glowered at Sonic and hissed, "That was until that little pest happily shattered my wings freeing everyone from their trophies and weakening me greatly."

Drawcia frowned and Miracle pointed to Ta, "Did he break your wings off entirely? I don't see anything." Ta laughed and playfully flicked Miracle's hair, earning a slight hiss from Zero and 02.

"That's because I'm hiding them silly!" with a flourish of his hands, a pair of wings appeared, gently moving back and forth as Ta floated upward.

Drawcia oohed and awed while Shadow frowned slightly, noticing how different his wings seemed, his left wing was a darker color than his brightly yellow and cyan blue right wing.

It had glass cracks dotted around the tip and distorted peeling effect, colors and faint outlines of his wing trying to move away from the rest of the wing as if trying to break free.

His right wing was simply blurred around the edges and twitched as if it was in pain. Ta angrily stroked his wings and glared down at Scourge, "You have _no_ idea how much I would love to tear you apart thanks to your look alike genes!"

"Gee, thanks." Scourged glowered at Sonic and stood up, "Alright butterfly man."

Ta!"

Scourge rolled his eyes and kept talking "I'll join your little mission plan," Ta grinned about shake Scourge's hand to conform the deal, " _If._ You bring back my girlfriend, Fiona Fox. Not totally sure how the forgotten thing works but consider it payment for me having to play nice with pretty boy over here." Vaati gave him the evil eye but stayed quiet when Mask sent him a warning glare.

"I can't do that." Ta landed and summoned a video clip of what appeared to be Scourge standing in front of a floating palace, next to a results screen, "I had a hard enough time pulling you into this realm since I had to use fan coding and practically rebuild you from scratch with the help of Sonic's data. You and Fiona are comic book characters who don't exist in the digital world, and the fan base is split between liking her and hating her guts so there aren't any recolor hacks of her being in any game."

"Well, then no deal."

Mask groaned and slid of the couch, knowing what was coming next. Ta blinked at Scourge before he echoed what he heard, "No deal?"

"Nope!" Scourge turned around and threw a smirk over his shoulders, "Why should I be working with a person who is happily showing off his powers when he can't even bring back a simple comic book character without leeching off of someone else's work?" He laughed and started for the oak door, "Sounds pretty pathetic if you ask me."

Ta gawked at Scourge as he tried the door knob to see if the door was unlocked, "See ya later losers!" Scourge yelled as he prepared to walk into the next room.

"Oh yea well!" Ta stuttered a bit before finally yelling, "I don't need your help! Your dumb girlfriend sounds like a better replacement anyway!"

Scourge waved Ta away saying, "Good luck with that."

While Vaati and Shadow tried their best not to laugh at how easily Scourge was manipulating Ta, Geno and Mallow shook their heads and joined Mask on the floor, who was counting down from ten.

"I'm serious!" Ta screamed, he stamped his foot and waved his arms around, "I control this whole place! You can't leave without me knowing!"

"Didn't you give me the option to stay here and not work for you?"

"Yes- well… Shut up! Stop twisting my words!"

Mask groaned and held onto the couch, "And here comes the tantrum." Zero perked up and watched as a level seven earthquake started, Mallow yelped and covered his head as everything flew around the room.

Scourge managed to fall from the falling debris and land next to Mask who watched his Master act like a two-year-old.

Scourge groaned as he caught what Ta was saying over the pounding thunder in his ears, "He's not going to calm down until I join his dumb mission." He glanced at Mask who nodded 'yes'.

"Fudge." Scourge shakily got up and was about to yell to Ta that he'll join when Ta's screeches of anger and incoherent rage speech was abruptly cut off by something falling from the ceiling and landing on him. Ta screamed, shoved the person or thing off of him and scrambled over to the oak door which was promptly kicked open by a snarling grey wolf.

Ta screamed and cowered by the wolf, pointing behind the couch while babbling nonsense about a spider person trying to kill him. The wolf snarled and snapped, "And what would you like me to do!? Kill it?"

"Yes! You have that pew-pew thingy!" Ta made a finger gun and pretended to shoot the couch while yelping, "Pew-pew!"

"It's a gun! And it doesn't make that sound." The wolf snarled.

"Don't care! Kill it!"

"Excuse me, but aren't you the one who can control this place inside and out!?"

"Yes, but I don't want to get my hands dirty!"

The wolf huffed and stormed around the couch he looked around for a bit before he snapped, "There's no one here!"

Ta frowned and joined him to make sure he wasn't lying. He finally scowled and ushered everyone into the main hall, which had a random card table in the middle of the marble floor, and a random solider inspecting his cards sitting at the random card table. He didn't bother to look up when he gruffly asked, "What happened now?"

"There was an invisible spider attacking Master." The wolf grumbled,

Ta scowled and grumbled, "It was real." Before he gestured for Vaati and Scourge to follow him. "Mask, show the newbies to their room and around the place."

"Is the place going to stay still?" Mask asked.

Ta glared at him and stormed off gesturing for Scourge and Vaati to follow him, they did but they quietly pinched each other, which then scaled to punching, then finally a brawl outside a purple and green door. Ta sighed and used his magic to shove them inside.

"Hey! I was winning!" Ta ignored Scourge's complaints and closed the door behind him, locking it for good measures since he figured they would immediately try and get out once they realized who the room was for.

"So? Where and why are we here?" Vaati demanded, he wrinkled his noise as he saw how much black and green was on the left side of room. His frown deepened when he noticed just how rebellious it looked.

Scourge however grinned and jumped on the metal bed and kicked his feet up on the rotting metal chains, "This… Is perfect." Scourge declared.

Vaati gagged and turned away. Then he brightened when he noticed how regal the other side was, it reminded him of home, or his second home, the Wind Palace. He drifted over to a classy bookcase and studied a book written in old Hylian runes.

Ta snickered as he watched Scourge discover a magazine about woman's fashion (Ta had a hard time convincing himself that it wasn't too inappropriate when he designed the room) and rolled under the bed to read in peace, while Vaati partially melted into an old fashion easy chair that was a royal purple and start mumbling about spells.

Ta slowly walked down the middle of the room and examined them for a moment before he sweetly asked, "Do you find your room to be enjoyable?" He got a half interested mumble from Vaati as he ignored the world and an annoyed grunt from Scourge. Ta giggled and waited for his words to sink in.

"Wait a second." Scourge scrambled out from under the bed, nearly tripping on a random cardboard box full of old jackets and posters and looked at where Vaati was. "I'm sharing a room with the girly girl!?"

Ta nodded and sat down on a comfy beanbag he had summoned, enjoying every second of his master plan, Vaati glanced up and choked when he saw the problem. He jumped up from his chair and pointed at Ta, "What is the meaning of this!"

"It's simple." Ta started,

"Simple?! How is this simple!?" Vaati snarled, Ta frowned and waved Vaati away, "What I mean is that you two would make excellent team mates and possible friends-Oh come on! Friends isn't a bad word!" Ta snapped, Vaati and Scourge ignored him and recoiled away from each other, even though they were still on their side of the room.

Ta threw his hands up and summoned a white board that had pros and cons on it. "Fine! Then read the stupid bored I so nicely made for you and see for yourself."

When they didn't budge Ta sighed and mimed that he was yanking them forward, Scourge yelped and Vaati gave a howl of rage as they were pulled forward and landed on each other, Ta giggled as Vaati and Scourge tangled and untangled themselves before angrily glaring at the board.

 ** _What you both have in common_**

 **1.** **You both had Father/Caretakers who you were either ignored or being held back for greater heights  
**

 **2.** **You both longed for power in hopes of getting noticed by said Caretaker**

 **3.** **You both enjoy boasting about your power and using force to achieve your ideals in gaining more.**

 **4.** **You both aim to prove to someone/race that you were right and the strongest**

 **5.** **You both had a burning passion for why you wanted to murder your rivals (Scourge because of how much better Sonic seems to be in both family life and skills, Vaati because your master happily offered to help the hero.)**

 **The Things which are different about you.**

 **1.** **Scourge excels when it comes to hand to hand combat and isn't afraid of taking deals to screw someone else over**

 **2.** **Vaati is powerful in both planning his goals and strategy for gaining more power and creating roadblocks but ignores his past mistakes, relaying on his final form and magic.**

 **3.** **Scourge approaches females with fake charm and flattery words while Vaati kidnaps maidens and laughs at how pitiful they are when they beg for his mercy.**

 **4.** **Scourge can rally a team using past mistakes of others and smoozing while Vaati is a loner, using his minions as throw away pawns.**

 **5.** **Vaati knows his magical boundaries and doesn't take risky chances to defeat the hero unless he loses his temper. Unlike Scourge who solely relies on himself and doesn't think ahead even when he has a team.**

"Ya done yet?" Scourge glowered at Ta who was munching on a gingerbread cookie. "Yes, we're done." Scourge spat, he glared at the board silently hating the fact they really did seem alike besides fighting.

Ta jumped up and shoved the board out of the way, "Would you two like to explain why you might be different?" Vaati glowered at him but said nothing while Scourge fiddled with his sunglasses. Ta grinned and skipped toward the door.

"Well, I'm going to leave and let this sink in, since I'm quite sure I'm needed elsewhere." He paused and looked at Scourge, "Now probably isn't the best time to mention this, but your role is to act like Sonic until caught."

"What?!"

"Seeyabye!"

Scourge glared at the closed door in disbelief before he looked at Vaati who was burning a hole in the stone floor.

"Sooo…." Vaati looked up from the floor and started glaring a hole in Scourge's head, Scourge scowled and glanced at the discarded board.

"You have… Issues with your dad?"

"He's not my father!" Vaati looked away and muttered, "He was my teacher. Who treated me like an idiot who could only help out with basic spells."

"Well, on the bright side at least you weren't ignored for the peace of the idiotic people." Scourge grumbled.

Vaati snorted and sneered slightly, "Let me guess, your kind were a weak race who happily let everyone stomp all over them, not caring that they were a child's folktale and never getting anything in return from those ungrateful giants."

"Uhh… I guess you could compare them to your kind, the only difference was that my dad was a political leader who created a world where everyone was happy and there were no wars."

"They sound pathetic."

"They were, until I took over and knocked seem sense into them. I ruled the city until I bumped into Sonic, decided to prove that I was better than him by taking over the world and giving it a wake-up call. And came back to get him to join the party."

"How'd that work?"

"I got thrown in jail, my girlfriend helped me break out after I formed a gang in hopes of beating Sonic to a pulp." Scourge silently decided not to mention that before Fiona got there he was a wreck from losing his only defense and attack, his speed.

Vaati noticed the hint of uncertainly but said nothing and fingered his hat, "It's ironic." He took of his infamous wish cap and stroked the red gem, smirking slightly when it glowed faintly, "I stole the Wish Cap, from my master when I heard he was giving it to the winner of a sword contest and used its power to turn him into a hat."

"A hat?" Scourge snickered as he imaged a tiny mouse creature as a mouse, "Correct, the very same hat that Link wore to defeat me, and the very same hat that he insists on using."

"Guessing that green isn't a favorite color then."

"However did you know?"

Scourge chose not to answer that and looked up at the ceiling,

"So, what was your team like?"

"Meh, first team was basically everyone on Sonic's team only they were from my world, second team was basically everyone from my group counsel season from when I was still in jail. Fiona used to be on Sonic's team but I won her over."

"Oh, lovely."

Scourge snickered and poked Vaati, "Aww." Scourge teased "Is the mage upset because he doesn't have a girlfriend."

Vaati growled and snapped his fingers, summoning the one eyed bat like creatures from before, "Does the annoying rat wish to be barbecued?" Vaati hissed, Scourge frowned and poked a bat, earning a squeal of pain as it fell to the floor and rolled around for a bit before Vaati squashed it.

"Huh, that what he meant by pawn minions."

"There spies, they are not pawns since I made sure to give them strict obedience to obey me. They also help out in blasting annoying heroes."

"So there a laser shooting camera?"

"…Huh?"

"Never mind."

"…So… Do you have a plan for tomorrow?"

"Does running in, kicking Sonic in the face and beating him to a pulp count?"

"No. You're going to get us all killed and treated like fools."

Scourge huffed and kicked a metal pipe, "Well do you have a better plans?"

"Why yes, I do. Since your posing as Sonic and I'm quiet Shadow wouldn't mind pretending to be Green we could easily whittle there forces until we can easily overtake them."

"What would Wolf and Mask do then? They can't shape-shift or anything." Vaati thought about this before he gave a shrug,

"We could have them hang back, and have them deal with the smarty pants who could tell who we really are." Scourge suggested, Vaati nodded in agreement and dragged the board over, "And if that doesn't work?"

"Brute force and me going Super could work."

"…Super?"

"Explain later. For now, let's work on humiliating that annoying Blue blur and greenie."

Vaati chuckled at the nickname Scourge had given that pest of a hero and started drawing out possible plan out comes, both of them obvious to the fact that Shadow had entered the room and was watching them or that an enemy spy was currently being interrogated.

* * *

 _"Breath in… Breathe out… Breathe in… Breath out."_ She heard a door open, and muffled footsteps enter the lavish room she was being held in, she guessed it was Ta, the person she had landed on during his tantrum. Sheik opened her eyes and watched him, like a silent, meditating statue.

"Having a nice stay?" Ta chirped, he inched an easy chair closer to her position and sat down in the one across it, with the boy called Mask, who had discovered her.

She silently scolded herself for hesitating, she could have easily slipped away until she had figured out who everyone was, she was sure that she had met or perhaps fought the boy before.

"Well?" Sheik glanced at the man wearing the friendly mask, and ignored his prompt, choosing to stand up and hold her hands out, fists facing the ceiling.

"Er.. That's not answering my question." Ta chucked, he studied her and once again gestured for her to sit down smoothly saying, "We're here to talk, not arrest people." He attempted to lighten the mood by joking, "Besides! If everyone here is a prisoner then what are you?"

"An enemy spy who is currently trapped in a hostage situation." Ta winched at how quickly she replied and looked at Mask who was fiddling with his Ocarina.

"Well Princess Zelda," Sheik inwardly flinched at the title but said nothing, letting Ta continue. "We like to treat royalty like people here, not spies."

"Of Course." Sheik briskly said, she glanced at the easy chair and recently sat down, Ta offered her a cup of tea which she took, but didn't drink. She had seen the man called Reptile prepare the tea tray, and she could sense the hidden scars of undercover work. She had witness drugged tea before thanks to Doctor Mario carelessly preparing Princess Peach's tea while chatting with Luigi. And she didn't want to be pranked when she came to.

Ta fidgeted a bit and took a sip of his own drink, glancing at Sheik then back at the drink as if to say "It's not poisoned." Sheik ignored him and settled on Mask, who seemed to be incredibly confused. Sheik frowned slightly when she saw the harden blue eyes, eyes that Link had from being thrown into the hero's role and turned into a wolf but these were different, these were the eyes of a grown man who had seen the worst of mankind and the afterlife.

And judging by those dark badges under his eyes he probably had recurring nightmares from whatever he had done. "Soo…. Lovely weather we're having." Ta said, Sheik gave him a blank stare since there was no weather indoors, Ta laughed and nudged Mask who ignored him.

"Why is everyone ignoring me…" Ta whined, "I'm trying to be a good host here!"

"Maybe there ignoring you since you seem extremely childish and not worthy of the power you posse." Ta flinched from the empty statement and glowered at Sheik who simply looked back, not phased.

"Oh and of course you're talking big!" Ta grumbled, he threw his hands up and the air and increased the glower to a glare, "I bet your just waiting for the chance to sing that awful song again!"

"What… Song?"

Ta snorted, not believing Sheik act of playing dumb even though she was truly confused, "That song that those two annoying girls sang every time they kept getting destroyed!"

"Sorry…?"

Ta ignored her confused apology and slumped in his seat, angrily fuming over unpleasant memories. Sheik wished she remembered that part since it did seem funny, if unfamiliar. Sheik was glad that she had her bandana on to hide her amused smile at how childish the all-powerful Ta was acting.

"Sheik, what is my name?" Sheik slowly looked at Mask who was now examining her closely, meaning that he had seen the brief flickers of confusion or possible doubt. Luckily before she could answer the door was kicked open and the angry wolf called Howler.

"Are you done playing cops and robbers!?" Howler demanded, "How about you stop beating around the bush and start needling for answers!"

Ta sighed and gestured toward Sheik, "Well first I want know what's she or he's doing here before I start poking her."

"You're an idiot."

"Am not!"

Howler rolled his eyes and stormed over to Sheik, prepared to teach his dimwitted Master how to get answers without treating them like royalty, Howler grabbed Sheik by the scarf and was about to order her to give answers when Sheik broke free, kicked him in the face, jumped over the couch and crouched using the surprise as a chance to swiftly pull out five long needles.

Ta looked around, stammering as he tried to figure out what happen, "She- then, jumped over the couch- how?!"

Howler groaned and muttered something about ninjas being jerks while Mask buried his face in his hands.

 _"At least I have a valid reason for freaking out."_ Sheik decided when Ta finally found regained his composer maybe he was finally going to drop the act and- "So does this mean that you don't want tea?" Scratch that, he was still trying to figure out what was going on.

Sheik ignored him and focused on Howler, paling slightly when she saw that he had her scarf, her favorite scarf to be exact.

Howler glared at her and glanced down at her scarf, "Aren't you supposed to change back now?"

Sheik chose not to answer that question and stood up slowly, scanning the room for any more attackers, "Well, if the princess isn't going to change back willingly," Ta grinned and waved his hands, indicating that he was about to use a spell, "Then I'll just make it easier for of all us." He grabbed an old looking controller out of the air and pointed it at Sheik.

She tried to duck behind the couch but quickly find that she couldn't move her legs, Ta pressed some buttons and grinned, "No more disguises for you Princess- ACK!" Sheik winched as she bounced off of Ta and landed back behind the couch, Ta sat up and huffed, "Let's try that again- Oh come on!"

Once again Sheik jumped in an arc and bounced off of Ta's head, this happened five times before Ta finally stopped and forced Sheik to sit down, "Why isn't this working!?" Ta whined, "I'm hitting the right button!"

Howler snickered and gave unhelpful advice, "Maybe you didn't press the button right?" Ta thought for a second before he tried his advice, Sheik groaned as she once again jumped in the air and hit Ta in the head.

"Or maybe, you should stop trying to do that." Sheik suggested, she didn't bother to hide the annoyed hiss in her voice since she was annoyed, and convinced that Ta was a moron and possible had brain damage from being hit in the head so many times.

Ta glared at her and gingerly rubbed his head. Sheik was about to resume mediating when she heard a familiar tune, a tune that sounded… Haunted, as if composed by the shadows themselves. She twitched and reached for her harp, wanting to play along but couldn't seem to remember the notes, frustrated she watched Mask, who was playing the song with ease not evening looking at what he was doing.

He played the song again, but at a snail's pace. Sheik bit her lip as the frustration of knowing yet not knowing song snaked into her mind. Where had she heard this before? And when? Zelda never played such a haunting yet soothing melody before, and neither had she.

She was about to ask Mask where he had learned that song when she found herself playing along at normal speed.

Mask nodded encouragingly and continued playing, Sheik obeyed and let her thoughts drift away, focusing solely on playing her beloved harp. The only thing that gave her a feeling of nostalgic and stirred memories of an old adventure.

When they finished she was surprised to see a small gently smile on Mask's stony face or the gently tone he took when he asked her the name of the song they had just played.

"I… Don't know." Mask frowned and looked at Ta, who grumbled and shooed them out of the room, "She can stay in your for the moment." Ta said, he glowered at Howler and summoned a pointed chain, Sheik felt her heartache slightly, and perhaps she had once used chains instead of a bomb.

She barely heard the threat Ta happily gave Howler as Mask ushered her out of the sitting room and down a hallway.

He led her to an oak door that reminded her of a forest, a living forest since two branches curled to form doorknobs once Mask had approached it.

Sheik touched a branch and quietly yelped when the branch touched her back, Mask quietly laughed and lead Sheik inside, who quickly tried to break free of Mask's grasp since the oak tree door slowly grew sharp brambles.

"It's okay, they won't hurt you." Mask said, Sheik ignored his attempt of reassuring and sat down on the floor to quickly study her surroundings.

The room was simple compared to the two sitting rooms she had been in. It looked like her room, only a lot neater since Mask didn't have a roommate, he had a faded oak desk which was covered in papers and a ragged journal, a light green dresser which had a dozen bottles, each containing either a liquid or a living creature. And a giant poster board which was covered in masks and weapons.

Sheik frowned and slowly examined a white mask with red markings, it formed an outline of an eye crying only it had a wide smile, Sheik glanced down at her outfit and froze when she saw the similar markings on her shirt.

"That's the mask of the Sheikah, the Mask of Truth, it's one of their powerful artifacts." Mask explained, "It allowed people to read the gossip stones and read animals minds."

"It… Did?"

"Yes, I stumbled upon it twice in my journey, both times I used it to gain clues for my adventure."

"I see…" Sheik gently stroked the mask, trying to figure out what it was made of, Mask watched her.

Studying her as if she was an experiment exploring a new testing area for the first time, Sheik ignored him and tried to answer the buzzing question that bounced around her head.

Why did she have that symbol? And why did she feel sad from touching the mask? Her questions briefly vanished when Mask cleared his throat.

Sheik faced him, trying to keep her face blank but serious as Mask invited her to sit on a rug. Sheik joined him and studied the ancite scribbles before she quietly heard Mask say something,

"Sheik," She looked up and unwillingly gave him her full attention, "What is my name?"

Sheik didn't bother to let her thoughts go into panic mode and breezily stated, "Mask, your name is Mask."

"No… What is my real name?"

"It's Mask."

Mask studied her sadly and shook his head no, "Sheik, my name is Link." Sheik thoughtfully looked Mask, or Link over once more frowning slightly as she compared the Link she knew with the 'Link' right in front of her.

They could have been the same, wearing the same color only a shade different and the blue eyes of a person thrown into the role of a hero but Mask's eyes had an edge of hardness mixed with a somber glint that never faded from his eyes, Link had a friendly yet stern gaze, and sometimes had the glint of wolfish anger from his times of being a wolf.

Even the hair was different, or at least the color. Link had the dirty blond which seemed more like a brown than blond at times while Mask's was a sunny yellow.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" Sheik jumped, not because of being sent back from blurred thoughts but from the almost mournful and regretful whisper Mask had uttered. Sheik uneasily prompted Mask who now seemed… Depressed? Or at the very least emotionally scarred from the words he had spoken.

"What do you mean I've met with a terrible fate?"

"You don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what?"

Mask grimaced and gently placed his hand over hers ignoring the death gripe that Sheik quickly put him in, "You don't remember anything. You don't remember our adventure, or battles in Melee or in Brawl do you?"

"I do too!" Sheik winched when heard her voice angrily echo in the tiny room, Mask ignored her outburst and pressed on, "Do you even remember the name of the song we played?"

"Of course I do!" Sheik winched once more when once again her voice echoed, why was she getting so upset? It was just a simple question, perhaps it was because he was invading the secret she had so desperately hidden.

"Then what's it name? Who taught me that song?" Mask growled, Sheik hesitated leaving an opening for Mask, "Sheik, _you_ taught me that song! You taught me the Nocturne of Shadows so I could go to the Shadow Temple in order to free the sage of Shadows to defeat Gannondorf!"

"I did…?" Sheik winched as a crystal clear image appeared, it showed an older Link listening to her instructions as she taught him Nocturne of Shadows.

She staggered back as she also remembered a vivid image of her bluntly saying to Gannondorf that he made her race noticeable, and pulled them from hiding in the shadows.

If Mask noticed her pained look he didn't bring attention to it he was on a roll, and Sheik couldn't stop him. "Yes! You did, you went undercover for seven years, pretending to be a member of the Shekiah serving Gannondorf, you waited until I had complete freeing the sages before you reveled yourself!"

"Shut up…"

"Something happened didn't it? Something that caused you to stop being Princess-,"

"I said shut up!" Mask paused and raised his shield as Sheik flung seven needles at him, "I'm not Zelda! I'm just a broken fighter!" Sheik jumped up, not caring that she was yelling or that tears were slowly threatening to spill onto her cheeks.

For the moment, she just wanted Mask to shut up. Or at least tell her how he knew her. But for now she was content with ranting.

"And no! I don't remember anything! I don't remember this place you call Melee! I don't remember Brawl or these so called adventures! I have no memory! I have no standards! I'm simply an extra fighter from the realm of nothingness! And- And-!"

Sheik faltered and collapsed, letting her pent up feelings of being character who was important yet not remembering any great deeds she had done create rivers as she cried. She cried even harder when she remembered that Mask was still in the room.

"There, there." Mask soothed, "Perhaps you remember this." She heard a familiar tune played, as if time was slowing down and locking her forever in time with its soothing melody.

By the time the song had finished Sheik had managed to more or less calm down, and wiped away some of the proof that showed her crying.

"Mask, what song was that- Who are you?" In the place of Mask was a man, he looked seven years older than Mask and was wearing his outfit. The man laughed and playfully poked Sheik, not noticing how tense and twitchy she became, "Well from the looks of it you don't remember me either."

Sheik blinked, frowned then grabbed his arm and flung him over her shoulder, "Where's Mask!" Sheik whipped out her stealth bomb and slowly swung it in the air, making a clear point that she wasn't to be messed with.

"Relax Sheik," the man groaned, "It's just me."

Sheik scoffed and flung the bomb, "Sure, and I'm the King of Evil."

The man yelped and rolled away, "It's really me! I was sealed away for seven years so I could wield the Master Sword and defeat Gannondorf!" He pulled out his sword which was the Maser Sword, just like he had said and handed it to Sheik, who flinched at the memory of meeting Mask in an old temple surrounded by three colorful stones.

"Okay… So if you really _are_ Mask."

"Which I am." Sheik ignored him and continued, "Then why did you age up seven years if you already have the Master Sword?"

"Because I learned the Song of Time to go back in time to make certain events happen."

"Oh."

Mask sighed and sat up warily glancing at the clock which read midnight, "It's getting late, we should head to bed."

"But… There's only one bed."

Mask blushed and looked away, "I meant that you should head to bed, I have trouble sleeping."

Sheik frowned and crossed her arms, "You aren't saying that because you really just want to sneak back to your master and report." She leaned forward and gave him the evil eye, or tried to she never did get the point of giving someone the evil eye. "Are you?"

"What? No!"

"Surrreee…"

"I'm telling the truth!"

Sheik gave him a look of disbelief, Mask scowled and threw his hands up in the air, "Fine! I'll head to bed, just not in the same bed." He quickly added. Sheik smirked and made herself comfortable on the floor.

"That means that you can use the bed."

"I prefer the floor." Sheik mumbled, Mask sighed and crawled in the bed grumbling something about her being stubborn. The lights turned off and Sheik winched, she wasn't used to being drowned in complete darkness when it was time for bed.

Usually Samus turned off the lights pretending to go to bed when she was really fiddling with her gun, Sheik remembered how annoyed she would be each night as she tried to ignore her roommate's flashlight but now it seemed so different not to have the annoying pinpoint of light gently moving under the covers.

"Having trouble sleeping?" Sheik jumped but said nothing, Mask chuckled and dropped a pillow on her head. "I know you're not asleep."

Sheik ignored him and focused on closing her aching eyes in order to sleep, "You're worried about someone. Aren't you?"

Sheik stubbornly clamped her mouth shut, she did want to ask Mask to leave Samus alone since she did owe her but she also wanted to contain some information, just because Mask was friendly and seemed slightly traumatized by something didn't excuse the fact that was working for some force of evil.

"Sheik, if I have nightmare could you wake me up?" Mask hesitated and quietly added, "Please." Sheik frowned at the quiet please but decided that was his way of trying to seem humble. Sheik sighed and quietly asked "Why would you have a nightmare?"

"I'm not used to sleeping on any day that's not the fourth…" Mask shuddered and Sheik could hear him uneasily turn away from her, "It just reminds me that I couldn't save everyone."

"…Fine… I'll wake you up, I would have done it anyway."

"…Thanks."

* * *

 **Wondering why the Miracle Matter villains treat Drawcia like a minion or why Zero is the leader? Because I had a theory, a Game theory! About most of the Kirby end bosses being related to the Dark Matter group, like Drawcia, Magolor and Dark Nebula, who is probably a official member of Dark Matter.**

 **my reasoning behind this is because each boss had a single eye in their boss form and/or soul form and had negative thoughts toward something or someone, It would also explain how Drawcia came to life despite being around for a long amount of time to the point of being called a 'Forgotten Painting' slightly putting the theory of Drawcia's creator being Kirby's artist friend from Kirby 64, since everything she painted came to life right after she finished painting it.**

 **Plus, it sort of explains why only Marx had left a corpse behind when Kirby first defeats him while every other villain Kirby faces that imposes certain doom to his home plant just explode. Since Dark Matter is supposedly made up of matter, once their form reaches their limit, they explode, leaving nothing behind but colorful stars.**

 **Also, I see Zero as the head of the Dark Matter group, or rather first in command since they do seem to have some intelligent, having Miracle Matter being the 'fake' boss of Kirby 64 While 02 focused on destroying the crystals, Zero came to see why his forces were falling and payed the price by being defeated at Kirby's hands, 02 and Miracle Matter picked up the pieces and continued working.**

 **Writing theories are fun :D (Hopefully this makes sense since I went for a shorter version of the theory _)**


	7. Chapter 7 Seeing Double

**Just a random heads up, Blue, Vio, Red and Shadow's personality are from the For Swords Manga, don't know why I felt the need to include that since Shadow Link seems to be fairly well known on the internet. I think. But I wanna be safe :3 Also, werided is totally a word!  
**

* * *

To say that Toon Link wasn't werided out by the other three hims' would be an understatement, Vio had fully explained their side of the story after Toon Link met Lucas and after the disasters discoveries that they were getting attacked by some unknown force made it even harder for Toon Link to gather the courage to tell Link about Red, Vio and Blue.

Without the interrogation of course. What was even weirder was that Vio had said that they only showed up when someone pulled the Four Sword, but since Toon Link didn't have a clue about who did it since he was sure as Din's fire that he hadn't done it. It left the unnerving question of who did, and if Shadow was still alive.

"Toon, ya still here?" Toon Link blinked and looked up at Blue who had happily shorten Toon Link's name just to annoy him, "Yes Blue, I'm still here."

He looked around his somewhat orderly/messy room which had now became a room for four since none of them knew how to restore order to whatever had caused them to spilt they had divided the room into four so everyone could have their own space since it seemed like three out of four were going to be kept in the room.

Unless they swapped tunics, like Green and Red done since Red wanted to play Catch and Trap.

Blue and Vio had allowed him to leave since Red was pretty much the same as Toon Link, only he was a lot happier than Toon Link liked to show.

Vio closed his book and looked at Toon Link who had gone back to absent mindedly polishing his sword, "Toon Link, What are the Forgotten?"

Vio winched as Toon Link nearly sliced his hand open on the Master Sword, Blue looked up and frowned, "Geez! How are you a hero if you're this jumpy?

Toon Link scowled and put his sword away, "I'm not jumpy! It's just that the forgotten is a touchy subject!" Blue and Vio exchanged glances before looking back at Toon Link in hopes of learning more about the forgotten.

Toon Link sighed and grudily started explaining, "The forgotten are what the name states, there either forgotten characters, boards or items sometimes bosses from previous tournaments.

And when you're forgotten it's pretty hard to get back into the tournament as an actual fighter and not a trophy which is pretty lucky. There only remembered by other fighters and in their own tourney."

Toon Link paused and looked at a photo of a red boat with a lion like helm, Vio studied it as well. Frowning slightly when he saw how skinny and small the boat was. It seemed illogical that Toon Link could sail for days without a comfy bed or sleeping bag on the tiny deck.

"The Red Lion King used to be a part of my stage, which was a pirate ship that was sailing around an endless ocean." Toon Link quietly clarified, "It acted and talked like a friendly king, always reminding where to go and how to get there without too much trouble."

"He must have been a great companion." Blue said, "All we got was a silent bookworm." Vio glared at Blue who grinned at him, egging him on. "It either being quiet or being a complete loudmouth."

Toon Link giggled slightly as Blue blew up and threatened to smash Vio into the ground, Vio ignored him and went back to reading his book which was quickly stolen by Blue who challenged him to a battle.

Vio rolled his eyes and pointed out that they couldn't since they could get caught. Blue ignored him and smacked Vio with Toon Link's boomerang which earned him a book to the head.

"Nice to see that Green was never bored with you two around." Toon Link joked, Blue scowled at him and tried to hit him with the boomerang only to get blocked by Toon Link's shield.

"Just for that comment Toon! I challenge you to a battle as well!"

"How about no?"

"You can't deny a challenge! What kind of knight are you?!"

Toon Link laughed while Vio simply shook his head and went back to reading, "Blue you sound like my grandfather."

"I do not!"

"Yes, you do, he used to always make me train to be a knight even though there were no kingdoms."

"Still challenging you!"

"Lalala! Can't hear you!"

Blue scowled and smacked Toon Link with the boomerang before he went to pester Vio for a battle, Vio replied by knocking Blue out with his book. Toon Link winched and Vio's words of comfort. "Don't worry, he has a hard skull." Didn't help.

* * *

"Ready or not! Here I come~!" Red gulped and pressed himself against the tree he was hiding on, Toon was right about Treeleaf being scary! She stalked the woods with a cheerful grin and with a skip in her step as she scanned the forest grounds, looking for Chibi, Lucas, Headband and Toon Link or rather himself since he was pretending to be Toon Link for a while.

Red nearly giggled out loud when he saw that she couldn't find him. But stopped when Treeleaf stopped and studied a tree. Then she jumed forward laughing as she netted Chibi, "Gotcha!"

"Oh no you found me!" Chibi ran away as Treeleaf laughed, "Now ya gotta help me~!"

Chibi giggled and pulled out and pulled out her net and followed Treeleaf as she walked down the path for more victims. Red shuddered wishing that he had someone else hiding in the tree with him.

He was tempted to call out to Headband who dashed across the dirt path and dove behind a rock with Lucas trialing behind but stayed quiet when he saw Chibi chasing them. Red gulped and quietly climbed a bit higher in order to blend in with the leaves. Game or not, it was terrifying and he didn't want to get caught.

After what felt like an hour had passed everyone but Red had been found. He quietly hummed to himself as the bushes rustled and random tree branches bent under the invisible wind's force. He heard a faint rustle behind him but he ignored it.

 _"It's probably just the wind."_ Red sighed and poked a leaf and quietly giggled when a small furry caterpillar crawled onto his finger, he studied it for a while before he was interrupted by a louder rustle.

Red turned around and screamed as Headband screeched, "I am a rabid Pikachu! Fear me!" Red jumped out of the tree, rolled past Treeleaf who tried to net him and took off running.

"Wow!" Red gasped, he rolled to avoid a thunder shock and kept running, "Never knew that being chased by a mob would be a great stamina boost!"

Red yelped as he felt something whizz past his ear, he picked up speed and ducked into a random cave which didn't really belong in such a quaint park.

"Gotta hide, gotta hide." Red stumbled a bit but managed to duck behind a fallen rock, he winched as his loud breathing echoed throughout the dark cave he was sure to give himself away now!

He yelped and pulled his hat over his face as he heard Treeleaf yell into the cave, "Oh Toon Link! Come out come out wherever you are!"

"Treeleaf, maybe you should stop talking." Lucas suggested.

"Yea… You still sound crazy." Headband reminded her, Treeleaf sighed and Red could hear them enter the cave. He was a couple feet away from the entrance and from the sound of it. They seemed to be taking their time.

"I wish Blue was here." Red mumbled, even though Blue was rash and didn't think things through he didn't like fear stop him from beating up the bad guy, fear didn't even seem to stop Vio and Green either. They would simply make up for the cheap scare by slaying the monster.

Red gulped and placed his hat back on his head, he spotted a second rock that wasn't too far ahead meaning that he could quickly switch positions. Red tried to move forward but the mind numbing fear stopped him, screaming at him to stay put.

 _"But if I stay, then they'll find me!"_ Red took a deep breath, trying to block out the panic screams in his head and rolled to the next rock. He listened to see if anyone saw him but Lucas and Treeleaf were arguing about whose fault it was for suggesting the game. Everyone else seemed to be on the sidelines trying to point out that Red was jumpier than usual and they all failed to notice that.

Red sighed and started crawling further into the cave, hoping that there weren't too many pathways he didn't want Toon Link's friends to get lost.

But of course, there was a pathway. "Oh come on!" Red grumbled, "You're not helping mister cave!"

"Of course it's not, it's a cave." Red screamed and took off running, not realizing that the person who had spoken sounded almost exactly like him.

"Hey wait!" Red ignored the person and tripped over a rock, quickly recovering with a roll he jumped up in order to gain some speed and succeeded in jumping off a cliff, "HEEEEEELLLLPPPPP!"

Red landed on his feet, with a grunt of pain as he felt his right foot buckle under the weight. He tried to place some pressure on it but quickly stopped when a searing pain shot up his leg. "Ow…." Red sat down trying not to cry. He couldn't see anything in the darkness and from a quick look up the cliff he had jumped off didn't have any pathways.

"Toon Link!" Lucas stopped and peered down at him, "You okay?"

Red was about to say no, I broke my ankle and I may or may not be trapped down here forever when he realized that he couldn't tell them about his injury since he would have to go to Doctor Mario, and then everyone would know and Toon Link would have to fake the injury when they swapped back.

"Y-yea! I'm fine!"

Headband sighed in relief and glanced back before looking back at Red, "Lucas doesn't see a way down, so were going to get help!"

Headband added, "We'll be back in a flash!" and with that they were gone. Red waited until he was sure that they had left before he buried his face in his hat, crying.

"Ah geez! I didn't think you'd jump off a cliff!"

Red looked up with a sniffled and froze when he saw a familiar shadow, "Shadow…? Y-you're… Alive?"

The purple haired Link grinned and swept his hat off with a flourish, "The master of shadows and pranks is back again folks! Now then, let's get you-oof!" Red tackled Shadow in a hug and began crying, happily babbling about how he'd never thought that he'd see Shadow again or hang out as friends.

Shadow cringed and patted Red's head. "Yup, you're defiantly Red." Shadow waited for Red to calm before he started poking the slowly swelling ankle. Earning a faint whimper of "Please stop." From Red. Shadow whistled and put his hat back on.

"Well, I got good news for ya Red."

"You do?" Red wiped away the remainder of his tears and faintly smiled, "W-what is it?"

"Good news is that you won't have to worry about getting chased around by the tree nut."

"…How is that good?"

"Well it's better than me telling you that you seemed to shatter your ankle bone completely."

"What?!" Red gingerly tapped his ankle and gasped in horror, how was he going to explain this to the others without getting scolded by all three of them. Shadow snickered as he watched a torrent of panic, fear and utter horror pass over Red's face. He stopped laughing when Red broke down and started crying.

"I'm stuck in a cave with a broken ankle and no hope of getting rescued or healed! WAAAAHHH!"

"Hey! You're going to be rescued once you stop wailing!"

"I…I am?"

"Yes!" Shadow jumped on a box made out of the shadows and smugly pointed at himself, "I'm going to save you moron!" Red sniffled and pointed to his ankle, "B-but how are you going to climb back up the wall? There's no handholds."

Shadow rolled his eyes and pretended to think, "Oh, I dunno. Maybe I'll use the same method that I used to get down here. Shadow traveling." Red silently face palmed and allowed himself to be carried on Shadow's back, "Hold on." Shadow warned, "I've never traveled with another person before and I'm not to familiar with this version of the Dark World."

Red gulped and tightened his grip around Shadow's neck. He had never taken Shadow's way of traveling, they had simply used a mirror to teleport to the Dark World and even that was a doozy from the sudden aches and pains they got when they landed.

He yelped as Shadow fell forward and melted through the shadows taking Red with him. Red closed his eyes and tried to ignore the angry grumbles and screams he heard. He focused on his happy place for a while before his curiosity got the best of him.

He shuddered when he saw the monotone theme of the cafeteria, everything seemed to be lunging toward them in hopes of ripping them apart. Red screamed a couple times when he saw a shadowy version of someone charge toward them, only to fade to vaper when they tried to attack.

"A-are we there yet?" Red squeaked as Little Mac gave them the evil eye, "Nearly. I just have to negative this stupid maze called a hallway and find your room." Shadow ducked as a bloodied blade sailed overhead, courtesy of the Blue bomber.

"Well, Toon's room has a Tri-force symbol on it, only it's a complete yellow. It shouldn't be too hard to-," Red cut himself off with a yelp as he realized something, "Hey wait! Won't you get hurt if you drop me off?"

"Huh?" Shadow paused and glanced at Red, "You know! Since you're a being of darkness and the light hurts you! And they have really bright lights here, Toon said it's because the creator wanted it to mirror the sun sort of."

Shadow laughed and started walking, "Don't worry about it Red, I'll still get hurt but not that much. I can finally stand in the sunlight."

"You can? But… How?"

Shadow slowed as if he was thinking about something finally he gave a bored sigh, "I suppose I can tell you."

"Tell me what? Are you trying to prove you're a hero again by doing the opposite of a hero?"

"What? No!" Red giggled as Shadow gave him the evil eye, which was scary since he could feel the dark magic crackling around him but Red couldn't help but laugh at Shadow's sudden reaction.

"Oh shut up!" Shadow snapped, "I'm the one who can easily leave you here!"

Red gasped and nearly choked Shadow in a desperate attempt to make sure that he wasn't left behind. Shadow snickered and started walking down a twisted hallway ignoring most of the door signs.

"I made a deal with someone powerful," Shadow started, Red frowned but said nothing. "He promised that he would break the bond that kept me imprisoned in the shadows if I helped him out."

"What are you supposed to do? Be utterly annoying?" Red teased, Shadow snickered but shook his head no, "Basically, I'm helping by… Temporarily putting people out of commission."

"Temporally putting- Wait, are you helping the guy behind the trophy incident!?" When Shadow said nothing Red tightened his hold around Shadow into a choke hold, "Even though I have no idea how painful it is to be shadow this isn't right Shadow! What if this backfires and you get seriously hurt or something?! Well!? Did you think that part through!?"

"I did. I simply won't get hurt or caught. Besides, I'm not alone."

"What's that supposed to mean?! Just because you have a team doesn't mean you're not in danger! Am I going to have to knock some sense into you?!"

Shadow snorted and coolly retorted, "I'd like to see you try." Red growled and started punching Shadow in the back of the head empathizing each word with a blow. "You! Are! A! Smug! Idiot! Who! Needs! A! Second! Opinion! On! Certain! Life! Choices!"

Shadow yelped and tried to force Red to stop, "Doesn't-ow! Matter-knock it off! I'm done-Stop it! Being ignored!"

Red finally stopped hitting him and slumped on Shadow's shoulders determined to knock some sense into him.

"Never knew such a happy go lucky guy could be so dangerous when mad." Shadow grumbled, he stopped at Toon Link's door and lowered Red to the ground.

"Fine, I'll be careful." Red frowned and was about to remind him something when Shadow tapped his ankle, "If you promise not to tell Vio or Blue that I'm here or what I'm doing." Then he hesitated and added, "And if all three of you stay far away from the storage closet. Even if you heard angry muttering and yelps of pain."

Red peered down the hallway and examined the rather bland item storage closet which according to Toon Link held past items from older tournaments.

"Why can't I tell Vio and Blue? Are you afraid of Blue's hammer?"

"Pff." Shadow floated a couple inches of the ground and poked his head inside their room, watching Blue give Toon Link and Vio sour looks as he nursed a nasty bruise on his head, "I'm not afraid of his dumb hammer. It's just that you have a genuine reaction toward things and won't hide your feelings."

"They have genuine reactions toward things too!"

"Yes, but if I were to tell them what I was doing, then they would start being on the lookout to try and knock some sense into me. Which would only make the fact that you three are fugitives a lot of worse."

Red frowned but sulkily nodded in agreement. "Fine. I'll try and be quiet." Then he glared at Shadow and tried his best to seem menacing, "But only if you promised to keep whatever you're doing quiet!"

Shadow snickered but dutifully agreed to be on his best behavior, "By the way! You wouldn't happen to know where a black marker is, would ya?"

Red gave him a scolding frown and stood up, indicating that he was ready to leave the Dark World, Shadow snickered and playfully poke Red before he yanked him back into the real world and disappeared.

Leaving an off-balance Red on his own as he landed on his broken ankle. Luckily no one saw him magically appeared or heard the muffled scream of pain as Red scrambled inside.

Toon Link sat up and cheerfully waved hello at him, "Have any fun adventures?" Red blinked then promptly collapsed on the floor whimpering, "Tree girls are scary."

"Annd that is a no." Toon Link sighed and joined Red on the floor, Vio and Blue looked up from book reading and muttering pranks of revenge and studied Red who was trying hard not to cry.

"Did this Tree person torture you or something?" Blue asked, when Red gave a meek "Sort of." Blue frowned and pulled out his hammer, "Knew she was evil."

Vio sighed. "Blue we have no real proof of that. Put down the hammer."

"I think that this!" Blue pointed to Red, "Is proof enough. She might even be the one behind this trophy thingy!"

Toon Link laughed earning a huff of annoyance from Blue, "Blue, the only thing that's dangerous about Treeleaf is how easy going she is. She isn't a villain."

"Says you." Blue grumbled. Vio rolled his eyes and closed his book. He studied Red gently asking, "Would you like to tell us what happened?"

Red sniffled and pointed to his ankle which was bent at a slightly odd angle, "I got scared, ran away from the group of crazy scary people, ran into a cave, scared myself again then jumped off a cliff and shattered my ankle."

Red winched as his story received quiet looks of some unreadable expression before Vio snapped into action and fumbled with Toon Link's dresser drawer which was full of his weapons, "Uh… Should we be doing anything? Besides get a potion of course." Vio ignored Blue's question and pulled out two sturdy deku sticks, he broke them in half and pointed at Toon Link, "Toon, do you have any rope like substance?"

"Uhh… I have a hook shot and a grappling hook, but that's about it for rope."

"Grappling hook will do. We just need something to keep the base straight." Vio carefully helped Red to a sitting position before he looked at Blue, "Blue, we need some ice to stop the swelling before we can start."

Blue nodded and swapped tunics and hats with Red before he started for the door, "Oh yea! If the others ask you about how you got of the cave feel free to make up a sensible yet random story." Red advised, "Since I'm still not sure how I even got out."

"By the power of dumb luck that's how." Blue grumbled, Red brightened for a moment but then quickly frowned when he realized that Blue was being sarcastic. And of course before he could make his own comment Blue had left the room.

"Nice to see that Blue has a sense of humor." Toon joked, Red gasped and studied Blue's hat, "Do you think that wearing Blue's hat will give me a sense of humor? Cause Blue says that I don't have one."

Vio sighed and started measuring the Grapping hook, "You do have a sense of humor, and it's just that Blue doesn't have any funny jokes."

"Yes he does! He told me one last night!" Red demonstrated by retelling Blue's joke to Toon, "Knock, knock!"

"Whose there?"

"Sandwich!"

"Sandwich who?"

"It's a knuckle sandwich silly!" Toon frowned and scratched his head, "I don't get it." Red laughed then thought about it for a while, "That's probably because I didn't do the punchline…"

Vio face palmed and sighed "Red, please do us all a favor and _don't_ listen to Blue's jokes anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because they aren't funny."

"Hey wait I get it now!" Toon Link formed a fist and punched the air, "The punchline was you punching someone, right?"

"Yea! Except that Blue punched me…. Instead of the air." Red winched and rubbed his eye, "I forgot how grumpy Blue can be in the morning…"

* * *

 _"Got the ice, now to avoid creepy-"_

"Hi Toon Link!" Blue cringed but managed to hide his annoyed scowl and replace it with a somewhat cheery smile when he faced Treeleaf, "Hey Treeleaf, what are you doing here?" Blue examined the other creepy kids that seemed to be from her world and added, "With all your friends?"

The droopy eyed boy wearing a tie-dye tee-shirt gave a tired smile and nudged Treeleaf who might as well be his twin, "Treeleaf's still upset over that cave incident." A girl with bright pink hair and sparkly eyes and huffed and put her hands on her hip, giving Blue a cute glare which was probably supposed to be the evil eye.

"Treeleaf isn't all to blame, if you were jumpy over yesterday's events of Ness disappearance then you should have just said so!"

 _"Ness disappeared? Poor guy, hope he's okay. But for now he's an alibi."_

Blue nervously laughed and tried to say that he didn't want to ruin anyone's fun when the girl in the yellow and blue shirt cut him off, "And your flaky 'it's okay' doesn't fix anything! You should at least have the decency to be rescued!"

The boy in the tie-dye outfit frowned and nudged the girl, "Rugby, we should all be thankful that Toon Link got out safety, he probably just didn't want anyone to hurt themselves in the process of recused."

A boy wearing a bright purple number 9 shirt nodded in agreement and gestured toward Blue who was trying not to leave the conversation even though he really wanted to deliver the ice before it melted. "Tie-Dye's right, what we should really be asking is how the heck Toon Link got out without us noticing."

The others thought about it and looked at Blue for answers, _"Why is it that caves almost always get me in trouble?!"_

"It was no big deal," Blue quickly checked his inventory and pulled out the Hookshot, which he had stolen after he had promptly tripped over it, "I just used the Hookshot and managed to climb my way back up."

"Really?" The boy wearing the bright red shirt leaned forward, his cheerful permanent smile reminding Blue of a menacing grin, "So why do you have that bag of ice? Did you get hurt?"

He silently cursed the fact that they were observant but managed to lie his way of this too, feeling a slight pang of guilt since he hated lying to anyone that wasn't a villain.

"I just wanted to perform an experiment about using colored markers and ice to get different colors." He quickly added, "It's a solo project." When he saw the exclamation point over all eight of their heads.

"But we'll be good!" the pink haired girl promised, "Honest!" Blue frowned and shook his head no, "Look, I want some alone time after today's events alright? Is that so hard to- hey give that back!"

Blue glared at Treeleaf who happily snatched the bag of ice from him and stuck her tongue out, "Gotta catch us first!"

"You have got. To be kidding me." Blue growled as they ran off toward the park. Blue gave chase but every time he managed to corner someone they would throw the bag to a comrade forcing Blue to change direction and chase after them.

Even though it would have been easier to ask Mr. Game n Watch for a replacement Blue wasn't in the mood to decipher what the heck he was saying or yelling to get a new bag.

"You're too slow!" 9-Ball called, Blue bit his tongue to stop himself from yelling and tried to tackle him, only to miss as he 9-Ball sidestepped and tossed it to Tie-Dye who yawned and asked, "Can't we just give him the bag of ice? I don't get to point of this."

"That's because your always taking it easy silly!" Treeleaf took the bag from him and playfully poked Tie-Dye who yawned and sat down under a tree.

"Hand over the stupid bag of ice!" Blue snarled, Treeleaf faltered for a second but quickly tossed it to the boy in red who happily waved the bag in the air.

"Oh you are dead!" the boy in red frowned and a question mark appeared over his head, "How are we dead? I'm pretty sure we're quiet alive at the moment."

"You aren't going to be by the time I get done with you seven!" Blue roared, he tackled red, ripped the bag out of hand and stormed off angry muttering and giving the startled Villagers evil glares as he shoved past them.

"Stupid cult members," Blue grumbled, "Them and their ability to do anything that's annoying!" he angrily kicked a rock and managed to get to the hallway without anyone stopping him.

"Hey Toon!" Blue stopped and gave Sonic the evil eye, "What? I'm trying to get somewhere." Blue growled, Sonic grinned ignoring the fact that Blue was going to strangle him. "I can see that of course! I was just wondering if you wanted to battle."

"Battle?" Blue perked up, sparring always cheered him up, or calmed him down since mindless slicing took his mind off of whatever made him mad and focused on improving his skills. "You're on!"

Sonic's grin grew wider, as Blue started running Toon Link's room, "I'll meet you at the cafeteria in a few! Just have to drop this off!"  
"Heh, don't be too slow Toon!" Sonic said. He chuckled when Blue yelled back, "I won't! Just don't be late slowpoke!"

Sonic waited for a bit before he glanced back at the person he was supposed to be walking with, "About time you caught up!" Falco glared at him and leaned on the wall to catch his breath, "Be… Quiet… You…Cheated."

Sonic laughed and started walking toward the cafeteria, "Oh come!" Falco whined, "I just got here!" Sonic sent him a playful grin but Falco flinched when he noticed the cold glint in his friend's eyes, "I know. I have to get something from my room real quick, I'll meet you and Toon at the cafeteria."

"Toon?"

"Yea, I noticed he looked upset and decided to help him blow off some steam in a battle." Sonic did a couple quick stretches and prepared to run, "Feel free to break down the door if I take too long."

Falco opened his mouth to say something when Sonic took off, leaving him in the dust, "…Show off." Falco muttered. But he sulkily started walking back to the cafeteria and of course, when he got there Sonic was sipping on a smoothie looking around.

"Geez! Why bother to tell me to break the door down if you're just going to chillax in the cafeteria!" Falco grumbled, Sonic looked up and bit down on his straw, "What are you talking about?"

Falco rolled his eyes, "oh very funny, just because I take everything serious doesn't mean that I'm that dumb!" Sonic frowned but didn't push it since he had no clue what was going on.

"Want a smoothie? I got an extra blueberry tornado," Falco perked up and this and happily accepted the smoothie, Sonic laughed and went back to idly looking around and watching the somewhat cautious groups of people walking around.

Sonic sighed "Man, I hope the culprit of this dumb mess is found soon. It's messing with everyone." Falco nodded in agreement and focused on Link who was trying to reason with the terrified Villagers about something, "I think it's messing with Toon Link the most though."

"Wonder why."

Falco shrugged and spun around in the circle, not noticing Toon Link race toward them until he shouted, "Prepared to be destroyed Sonic!"

"Huh?"

Toon Link grinned and pulled out his sword, "Oh don't play coy with me slowpoke! You know good and well what I'm talking about!"

"I do?" Sonic looked at Falco for help who snickered and reminded him about the battle, "Well, even though I have no recollection about challenging you to fight I accept! Prepared to be destroyed!"

Toon Link sorted and followed him to the Stage Select room, "In your dreams slowpoke."

Falco watched the friendly banter before he noticed Fox heading toward the library, "Huh, never knew that Fox liked to read." He was tempted to ask him what he was reading but since Fox had sent him a warning glare he deiced that focusing on stealing Sonic's smoothie was more important.

* * *

"Perfect, I have the library all to myself." Fox grinned and headed to the non-fiction section in hopes of finding more war stories or brave heroic deeds that were true. He managed to find a few that featured Link, Mario and of course the Fire Emblem squad and curled up in a corner to read them.

Having lived and worked as a space patrol for as long as he could remember. Being able to kick back and relax with a book was a rare thing if not legendary. You always had to be ready for danger, possible emergency or sudden attacks on other planets. And when you tend to block out the world when reading you tend to lose a ton of innocent lives and earn a mountain of guilt.

But for now, Fox could simply relax and block out the horrific screams of- "What the…" Fox sat up listened, he could have sworn that he heard Luigi and Jigglypuff scream. He pulled out his gun and quietly walked around the library, senses honed and ready to shot someone in the foot.

"F…Fox. H..Help."

"Toon Link?!" Fox followed the weak cries of help to the Mystery and Horror section and growled lightly when he saw how badly Toon Link looked, he was a mess of bruises and cuts his green hat was tattered and rip. Even worse was the condition of his sword, his Master sword which was somehow broken in half.

Fox stopped himself from rushing to Toon Link's aid and scanned the surroundings for the enemy. Satisfied that there was no one there. Fox pulled out a small first aid kit and started patching Toon Link up.

"Who did this to you?" Fox winched when Toon Link gave a ragged cough before he could answer, "S..S..Sonic did…"

Fox felt his mind hit a brick wall as he tried to make sense of what Toon had said, _"Sonic did this? He was never this brutal. Does this mean he took out Alf and the others?!"_

Fox barely heard Toon Link talking until the poor boy started coughing again, "Hey, hey, hey! Take it easy alright?" Fox carefully rolled Toon Link on his back and picked him up, "I'm going to take you to Doctor Mario and get a search party to get Sonic."

"B..But Fox. H…He's not alone." Fox froze as Toon Link continued, "H..He got Luigi and Jigglypuff before he noticed me… He and…"

"Who? Who else was with Sonic?!" Fox winched as Toon Link gave a soft moan of pain from Fox suddenly shaking him for answers, when Toon Link recovered he gave Fox a devious grin, "Sonic, Wolf and I did this!"

"What…?" Toon Link laughed and jumped out of Fox's arms, his tattered green outfit melting away, "You should have seen your face!" The fake Toon Link howled, "It was priceless!"

Fox whipped his gun out and fired a couple rounds at the phony only to get a crazed giggled as the laser beams went right past him, "You can't touch me~ You can't touch me!" He sang.

"But I can." Fox spun around and snarled when he saw Wolf giving him a sickening grin. His cold eyes focused on the grinning Toon Link "You got the cameras covered?"

"I made sure they stopped filming after I told my _touching_ story."

"Perfect," Wolf focused back on Fox who was point his gun at him, Wolf laughed and pulled out his own gun, "This is just going to like old times. Only this time, you won't survive."

Fox snorted and zipped pasted him earning a sarcastic clap from the fake Toon Link, "We'll see about that!"

* * *

"Where's Blue?" Vio looked up from his book and studied the sun shaped clock, he frowned but still suggested "Don't know… Perhaps he's getting destroyed by Sonic and lost track of time." Toon Link nodded in agreement, "Sonic is pretty fast and the stages here can be quiet hard to get used to. Plus, I handed him a shard of the walkie talkie stone."

Red sighed and made himself comfortable on the second bed, "I just hope that he's okay." He looked down at his now green tunic and pulled the blanket over his head, Vio still didn't understand why Red's tunic had changed colors and Toon Link's feeble theory of Blue using his own color for the battle didn't really convince Vio.

 _"But I suppose that shall be the answer for now."_ He went back to reading his book when he heard a door open and slam shut and the sound of something big and heavy being dragged across the floor, followed by muffled angry mutters.

Vio and Toon quickly pulled out their swords, and crept toward the door trying to listen in on the possible intruder.

Vio could barely make out the words, but he did manage to piece together a couple mostly, "Don't worry Vaati, this will be easy, all you need to do is carry the big stupid gun to the train. Easy peasy."

The speaker snarled and the scrapping noise continued followed by a one sided argument. Vio glanced at Toon who nodded and was about to open the door and surprise the culprit when he heard a cheerfully, "Hello!" from a very familial person.

"Why is Treeleaf here?" Toon Link glanced at Vio for help who could only give him a frown. Treeleaf cheerfully asked not noticing the danger or the slight increase in angry muttering as the person tried to ignore her, "Hey mister, where ya going with that weird gun?"

"None. Of. Your. Business."

"But I wanna know."

"Well, then." Vio paled when he heard the sudden gleeful malice in his voice, "How about I give you a demonstration?"

"Why are you grinning like Gannondorf when he's about to beat someone up?"

"Because, I'm about to hopefully inflict a lot of damage using this thing." Treeleaf gasped and before any of them could react they heard a loud slicing sound and a heavy thud. "...Better than nothing I suppose." Toon Link exchanged a horrified glance with Vio as the person retreated with a happy musing of what he could do.

Red quietly asked "I…Is he gone?" Vio nodded and carefully opened the door once he was sure that the attacker had gone, he slowly closed it once he saw the trophifed Treeleaf her natural tired smile frozen in stone.

"He's gone Red." Vio mumbled, "Try and get some sleep." Red winched at how hollow Vio sounded but obeyed.

Quietly mumbling something about a shadow. Toon Link tried to lighten the mood but couldn't think of anything besides, the not so _helpful 'At least we can warn the others.'_ And decided to simply head to bed. But Vio couldn't shake the feeling that he still needed to do something or wonder about it.

He tossed and turned and listened to the quiet snores from his comrades but still found sleep evading him. Finally, he sat up and pulled his hat back on, if he couldn't sleep then he might as well see what the stranger had done to Treeleaf.

Perhaps he might even bump into Blue who was still missing, he studied his worn leather books and deiced to go without his shoes, lately they've been making slight squeaks when he was trying to quietly sneak past something and since he was going to be carry his trusty bow n arrow, sword and shield. He didn't want to risk the chance of his shoes loudly squeaking from the extra weight.

He carefully closed the door behind him, and listened for any unusual sounds before he slowly edged toward Treeleaf, he could easily she her outline in the dark but wanted to get a closer look. But that might also get him in serious trouble if anyone stumbled upon him.

From what Red and Toon had told him, everyone was on edge and even though he could easily be mistaken in the dark for Toon with his somewhat bright purple tunic, he could also get mistaken for an enemy.

He shuddered slightly but push the dreaded thoughts of being falsely accused out of his mind, he instead focused on Treeleaf who looked a lot like a boy in her state. He frowned and reached out touch her when he froze.

"Magic…?" he waved his hand over the trophy and frowned, No. This wasn't magic it was…. Something else… Something electric. He was tempted to touch it with his sword but decided not to, whatever the electric force field around Treeleaf was, Vio didn't want to find out. At least not yet.

For all he knew this could be the same force that hovered around all trophies people. He sighed and deiced to work on the next buzzing thought. Finding Blue.

He slowly made his way to the main room, trying his best to block out the cold that was nipping his socked foot and to keep and an ear out for intruders.

He relaxed slightly when he found the giant room empty but quickly tensed when he sensed something different in the atmosphere, a feeling of dark magic. Vio crouched and quickly made his way to the doorway that lead to the battle arenas.

He glanced up and frowned when he saw faint glow from the TV, which shouldn't have been there since the screen was pitch black.

"I knew it…" Vio swiftly notched his bow and fired an arrow into the doorway. He watched the TV screen flicker for a bit before a crystal clear picture of Blue and Sonic sitting and chatting on Hyrule Temple appeared.

He watched his arrow appear and swiftly lodged itself above Blue's head, Blue yelped and pulled the arrow out of the stone pillar. He studied it for a bit before he looked around.

"Interesting…" Vio sneaked over to the counter and grabbed some napkins and a pen, he swiftly wrote down a message and carefully wrapped it around his arrow. Then he fired it into the darkness and watched it reappear and once again lodge itself in the stone pillar.

Blue angrily grabbed the arrow and studied the note, fuming slightly. Sonic tried to look at the note but Blue held it out of reach. He said something and Sonic replied with an unsure frown.

"So I can see everything you do…" Vio mused, "But I can't hear you…" he scribbled down a second note and sent it to Blue. Blue's eyes widen when he read the second note and grumpily scowled at Vio, probably trying to figure out how he was supposed to reply when Vio couldn't hear him or risk entering the stage himself.

Vio quickly solved this by asking a yes or no question, it was clear that they were trapped since it was currently 3 AM and Blue had vanished around 6 PM, which was when everyone slowly drifted toward their rooms to unwind so it was likely that they simply forgot with the sudden attacks that were happening.

Vio's first question was, "Do you feel an electric force field preventing you from leaving?" Blue shook his head no and pulled his hammer, Vio frowned, Blue's hammer was a hammer, and unless he was talking about the Magic Hammer. Which could mean that there was magic in use instead of electric fields.

Vio sighed and went to see if his guess was correct, it was. And judging by how angry Blue was when he confirmed it, the magic was dark magic. That narrowed it down to Gannondorf and hundreds of other unknown mages with dark magic.

Even if Gannondorf wasn't playing a cruel trick on Sonic and Blue, someone was trapping them with a purpose, someone who wasn't in this tournament. Vio was about to ask a third question when he heard someone behind him, someone who was trying his best to stay quiet as they carefully unsheathed a sword.

Vio kept writing pretending to be busy with his message as he quickly told Blue that he was going to call him with Toon's shard, he launched it and whirled around, shield ready and sword already moving.

His sword was quickly stopped by his opponent's sword, they jumped back, not wanting to give each a levenge this early in the fight. Vio carefully studied his opponent as they circled each other, testing the water in hopes of attack.

Vio quickly noticed how similar the boy looked compared to Toon and Link, he could have been Toon's double if it wasn't for his outfit and build. His outfit seemed more outdoorsy than Toon Link's hero uniform and it he wasn't wearing leggings or a shirt underneath his tunic.

He was also a bit bigger than Toon Link and Vio. Vio carefully examined his short sword, it seemed blunt and it barely had any reach but that could work in his favor since all he had to do was get close enough to Vio and render his bow useless.

Vio tried his best to focus on eye contact but it was nearly impossible due to the yellow Keaton mask his opponent was wearing. He bit his lip and started to form an attack plan around what he knew so far.

From the look of his sword and from how antsy he was getting, he wasn't used to having the battle drawn out without trading blows and he seemed slightly annoyed by the calculating look on Vio's face.

 _"Good. The more on edge he gets the better."_ Vio deiced, judging by the firm yet almost desperate grasp on his tiny sword he didn't want to lose it, and possibly never had any official training with sword fighting.

Vio slowly acted as if he was going to pull out his bow and fire at him when his opponent finally took action, he swapped his sword for a much longer sword and lunged, Vio blocked the blow with his shield and gritted his teeth as he felt how much force was put into the attack. He lunged forward, hiding behind his shield and ducked as his opponent swiftly switched from stabbing to swinging.

 _"Fast and strong…"_ Vio ducked and finally jumped back, _"Not good, especially not with a sword that long."_ He whipped out his bow and fired three arrows at a time, he had fired a total of nine before his opponent had to pull out his own shield which had a picture of a horrified face set in middle.

Vio fired once more then quickly charged and did a spin attack, he knew that the shield could probably deflect the attack but he didn't mind, the moment the spin ended Vio lowered his sword and slashed upward, sending the circle shaped shield snapping up.

He was amazed that his opponent managed to hold on but quickly ignored it and fired his bow.

Even though he was only a couple feet away from the boy he just need to keep him off guard to distract him for a bit. Vio slashed with his sword once more and yelped when something exploded, he was sent crashing into a couple tables and saw a row of hearts disappear as he waiting for the ringing sound in his ears to vanish and his vision to clear.

When it did he saw that his opponent was now wearing a bomb shaped mask with markings and was holding a sword that was nearly the same size as his own. Wait… That was his sword!

Vio fumbled for his bow and a couple arrows but the sudden explosion had left his nerves scrambled and the pain was screaming at him to stop. But he couldn't, his shield was a couple feet away from him and death was coming closer and closer to him. In the form of a doppelganger.

Vio gave up on searching for his bow and started looking for something else when his own sword was pressed against his throat, Vio grimaced but calmly looked up, as if he wasn't about to die or get turned into a trophy.

"For a person who wasn't trained, you fight quiet well." Vio said, he carefully adjusted his position in hopes of easing the pain but it failed, "For a person whose about to die you seem quiet calm about it..." The boy remarked.

Vio gave him a smudge grin and pretend to be looking at someone behind him, "That's because I'm not." He yanked a nearly invisible strand of string from Link's bow string collection and pulled on a discarded arrow, it made a loud scraping sound causing the boy in the mask to whirl around to defend himself.

"What the-!?"

Vio grabbed his bow and tackled the boy, he peeled the mask off of his face and hurled it toward the park gateway. Then he jumped back and fired arrow after arrow.

He kept shooting until he noticed that he was getting low on arrows, he slowed the rapid fired and carefully aimed. He had forced the boy into a corner with his bombard of arrows and also forced him to switch masks since he had thrown away the bomber mask.

He was now back to wearing the Keaton mask and seemed impressed by Vio's trick, Vio was about to fire an arrow at his feet when the clock chimed, they both jumped and looked at the digital clock which proudly showed 6 AM.

"Well… That was an interesting battle."

Vio face the boy who was in the process of sending Vio's sword back to him, "Although you aren't my original target, it was nice to see your clever approach to being weaponless." The boy mused.

"I've had practice." Vio replied, careful to keep his voice stony and emotionless,

"I can tell…" The boy pulled out a disfigured mask and nodded at Vio, "Next time we meet, I hope to have a proper sword fight with you, Vio." Vio frowned and was about to demand how he knew his name but the boy switched masks and disappeared.

Vio listened for footsteps indicating that he was either leaving or moving around to distort him, but Vio could only hear the muffled sounds of people stirring in their sleep and someone waking up. Vio sighed and gave up the attempt of being stealthy and ran back to Toon's room.

He was going to need to brief Toon and Red about what had happened since he and that masked warrior had wrecked most of the tables and left traces of a bomb explosion.

He stumbled into a wall and winched, apparently the adrenal rush and the burning questions about what had just happened had blocked out most of the pain and the throbbing headache.

Vio found it a miracle that he managed to stumble back onto his bed without waking anyone except Toon who had dragged him over to the closet and quietly demanded answers.

Vio happily obliged and told him about the warrior, "I just wish I knew why he freaked out when it turned 6," Vio complained once he had finished his story, Toon frowned and played with his bedhead, "Maybe it's a side effect of his journey? Like once I got used to sailing I could easily read sea charts and fight on rocky waters or any moving surface."

"Perhaps," Vio sighed and fluffed his pillow, "Hopefully Blue will be able to help." He wearily looked at Toon, feeling mentally and physical drained from the fight and pointed to Toon's shard, "Try and see if you can talk to him. I managed to have a conversation with him before I was jumped but I don't really know what's going on."

Toon nodded and tossed Vio a blanket, "I'll happily do that once you get some shut eye, we already have broken limb as it is." Vio winched and glanced at Red, who was completely still and seemly trying his hardest not to move in his sleep.

Toon adjusted his red tunic, then waited a couple moments before he was sure that Vio was asleep, he quickly tapped on the stone a couple times and grinned when it lit up and Blue carefully spoke, "Hello?"

"Blue! Thank goodness you're alright!" Toon winched at how loud he was but didn't mind too much since he was relieved to see that one of three wasn't injured in any way.

"If being trapped in a stage all day with Sonic with no food and complete boredom means that I'm okay then sure. I'm fine." Blue grumbled, "And whadda ya mean I'm alright? Didn't Vio destroy whoever tried to attack him?"

Toon glanced at Vio and clarified what had really happened, "It turned into a draw, but whoever Vio was fighting had an extra trick up his sleeve, or a bomb mask."

"A what?"

"Vio managed to trap his opponent but before he could knock him out and question him he got blown up." Toon quickly added, "He's fine! Just recovering from the headaches."

"He better be." Blue snarled, "Because as soon as I get out of this dumb temple I'm going to give that-,"

"Uh Blue," Toon tensed when he heard Sonic clearly, meaning that he was sitting right next to Blue, "Maybe you should wait for Vio to wake up and form a plan. You told me yourself that Vio's smart and not reckless so this guy has to be some big baddie."

"Or he might be someone from our world who knows that Vio's more of a bow person than a swordsmen!" Blue snapped.

Toon quickly interrupted the argument and asked, "Does Sonic knows what going on? I mean, about the four sword stuff."

"Yea… Had to tell him since he had no recollection about challenging me to a fight… He might have… Figured out that something was up…"

Toon face palmed as Sonic chuckled, "Might have? I think your fiery temper and the fact that you chased me around the stage with a hammer instead of a sword was a dead giveaway."

"Shut up!" Blue grumbled, Toon sighed and glanced at Red who was slowly waking up. "Do you know what's keeping you trapped in Hyrule Temple? Vio said that it was powerful dark magic."

"Oh yea! Sonic and I looked around for a bit after Vio stopped sending us messages and found a very familiar magic spell." Toon felt a chill as he heard the dread and anger in Blue's voice, "Toon, I think Vaati trapped us here. Every time we try to leave a gust of wind pushes us back and prevents us from jumping off the ledges."

"So the invisible masked man might be in cahoots with Vaati? The wizard guy who you guys sealed away?"

"Seems like it."

"But, that's impossible!" Toon jumped as Red sat up and argued, "We broke the mirror and got rid of Gannon and Vaati for good! We had to have sealed him away for good since Toon never heard anything about Vaati before!"

Toon nodded since it was true but couldn't shake a feeling of unease, "Maybe, I'm going to ask Gannondorf and Zelda about it, they actually had an education about this stuff, I just know old folktale legends and the history of how Hyrule became an underwater castle." Toon glanced at Red who was already taking off Toon's green hat and tunic.

"I'll call you once I figure out how to get you out of there and find some clues."

Blue grudgingly said good bye and Sonic warned him to be careful, Toon said nothing but quickly changed back into his clothes and handed Red his, promising that he would try and find some breakfast cookies to cheer Red up.

Of course that plan went downhill the moment he stepped outside his door to find Link and his roommate, Owl examining Treeleaf's trophy, Link greet Toon with a grim smile.

"I see you found Treeleaf." Was all Toon could say, Owl perked up and gave Toon a questioning look, "I take it you overheard the confrontation?"

Toon gently nodded the trophy, "I overheard what had happened but I couldn't tell who the speaker was, all that I know is that he was dragging something heavy and fired something at Treeleaf."

"Fired something…?" Link touched the base of the trophy and it released a glow of light, Toon shielded his eyes and he heard Owl gasp.

When he could see he was relived to find a safe yet extremely confused Treeleaf on the ground. She sat up and looked around, "What happened? Where'd that purple guy with the huge gun go?"

"Purple guy?" Owl questioned, Link frowned and glared at the door at the end of the hallway, Toon felt his stomach drop as he realized that the purple guy was possibly Vaati and that Link knew what he had used to attack Treeleaf.

Treeleaf tried to get up and Link stopped her, "Wait a bit before you move around again, you're probably still dizzy from the after effects." Treeleaf jumped up and was about argue that she was fine when she tripped over her feet and was forced to lean against a wall.

Treeleaf scowled and slumped against the wall, "I'll go get Doctor Mario." Owl volunteered.

"I'll check the cameras." Link offered.

Cameras? Toon looked around and felt his stomach hit the ocean floor. If they had cameras, then that meant that they had proof that Vio had been fighting and he could easily be pinpointed as the purple guy that Treeleaf was talking about.

He followed Link who didn't notice him and watched him open a door revealing a couple TV screens and a computer, Rob was monitoring them and happily talking to Megaman who was fixing some wires.

"Any updates?" Link asked, to Toon it sounded like an order then again with the grim look Megaman gave them it seemed normal for Link to be in charge.

"We think we may have found the culprit." Megaman said his voice filled with disbelief, Rob pressed a button and a video showed Toon Link bruised and battered talking to Fox who seemed to slowly lose interest in keeping an eye around his surroundings.

Toon paled when he saw the time stamp and when he heard the fake warn Fox about Sonic and his friends who were turning everyone into trophies the video feed cut out when a shadowy outline of someone who looked like Fox enter the camera.

"Is this true Toon- where did he go?" Link looked around for the boy but he had apparently fled while the video was playing, "Maybe he was a part of it?" Megaman suggested, "You know, he was luring Fox to his doom or something?"

"Maybe…" Link opened the door and peered down the hallway, "Or maybe he knows something that we don't." he mumbled. Megaman thought about this and frowned, "Come to think of it, Toon Link has been acting a little weird lately…"

Link thought about this before he reluctantly nodded in agreement, it didn't make sense to why Toon Link had lost his temper over a childish prank or why he seemed extra jumpy and cheerful. He was like a wheel of random mood swings each time he came out of his room, and yesterday had only been four times Link had seen Toon Link out and about.

Link peered down the hallway and spotting Toon Link examining the stage select doors, "I'll keep an eye on him." Link deiced, "You two use the cameras to keep an eye on Sonic."

Whatever was going on with Toon Link, Link was going to find out, and hopefully whatever secret he was keeping wasn't involved with the trophy attacks.

But that spark of hope was dimmed as Link saw the remains of the café, half of the room was covered in broken tables and chairs and the other half had a bunch of tables tipped over and in a pile.

As if someone had used them as a landing pad. Link froze when he smelled the faint trace of an explosion and oddly, Toon Link himself. Perhaps it was the remaining animal senses from being a wolf tricking his nose but he could have sworn that he smelled Toon Link on a couple of the tables and the smell of death.

"Toon Link." The boy jumped and spun around, he hastily shoved something into his pocket and tried to change his panicked expression to a neutral one. It failed since Link narrowed his eyes, giving him the look of an annoyed wolf.

Toon Link gulped and hastily squeaked, "I can somewhat explain."

Link raised an eyebrow and pulled a scratched chair out of the pile of destruction, "I hope that somewhat, means all of it Toon Link."

"Uh…"

* * *

"Nearly Showtime." Sonic murmured he left 'his' room and glanced down the hallway, the plan was moving a lot faster than it was supposed to but that didn't matter. All he needed was to slow down the train of evidence and cause a slight destruction for about ten minutes and for that. He needed to appeal to a clone character.

He glanced at the camera watching him and gave it slight frown, pretending to be annoyed by its presence. Then he briskly headed to the park for a certain angle, he couldn't help but send Toon Link a smirk that clearly said "You're dead" and flashed him a small pendent it looked like a pair of black angle wings and glowed a faint yet menacing purple.

Toon Link noticed and tried to point out the object which was clearly bad news to Link but a swift pat on the head and a slight growl forced Toon Link to continue.

"Yup… Nearly Showtime."

* * *

"I'm telling you! That isn't the real Sonic!" Toon Link argued, Link frowned and folded his arms not believing his story, "If that's a fake then where's the real Sonic?"

Toon Link faltered slightly but managed to convince himself that it was better to get it over with now than later, he pointed to the door and said, "He was in there! With a second Toon Link! The fake trapped him there with some dark magic and they just recently got out!"

"Why would there be a second Toon Link?"

"It's extremely confusing and not really that important right now since someone might be in trouble-,"

"Toon Link. Why. Would there be a second you?"

Toon opened his mouth but no words came out, Link sighed and loosed his grip on Toon Link's shoulder, "Listen Toon Link, I know that this may be hard to believe but you don't need to stick up for Sonic, it's okay. We just want to know if he's really the one behind this."

"But-,"

"But nothing. After breakfast we're going to talk this over, properly and in private." Link sent a scolding glare at Bowser Jr. who was pretending to be studying the bulletin board.

Toon Link sulkily nodded and headed to the park. Maybe he could catch the fake in the act! Or better yet find some proof that he was a fake that didn't force himself into a corner.

He did want to tell Link about the others but at the moment everyone was too jumpy and the sudden attacks weren't going help. Toon sighed and carefully walked around the park, listening for sounds of conversation and possibly footsteps but the only noise were the early birds chirping and the fallen leaves being tossed around by the wind.

"Lovely." Toon grumbled he looked around before he deiced to turn around and work on freeing the real Sonic and Blue when he saw a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye. He nearly pulled out his sword and attacked before he realized that it was simply a flier.

"How did this get here…?" Toon looked around for the possible culprits before he picked it up, he frowned when he saw a warning scribbled over a picture of one of Samus's boards, it screamed in bright red marker 'Stay away from Ridely' and showed five drawings of people hiding in the shadows.

He was about to pocket it when the wind ripped it out of his hands and hurled a couple pinecones at him. "Gah!" Toon ducked and raced back to the main room, it was empty which worried Toon slightly since Mr. Game N Watch usually started setting up his café around 8 Am. He sighed and went back to studying the dark magic.

* * *

"Show time." Sonic happily skipped down the hallway tapping on doors and quietly whistling a mournful tune, _"A tune that's about to become quite popular."_ He knocked on the storage door and snickered when a cranky demon mage pulled him inside, "Not. A. Word." He hissed.

Sonic smirked but focused on examining the discarded items and props from older tournaments, "Nice to see that there eco-friendly," Sonic commented, he picked up an umbrella and spun it around a couple times before he flung it into a bazooka.

"Why." The mage hissed, "Did you let me end up with getting this stupid electronic monster of a gun!?" Sonic studied the gun which was quiet huge and pointed to the door, "You're the only one who can fit, remember?"

"Don't remind me!"

He kicked it a couple times before he went back to giving Sonic the evil eye, "Don't you have a performance to do?"

"Waiting for the signal."

"Good for you."

Sonic peeked outside the door and grinned when he saw Lucas making his way down the hallway, chatting with Pac-Man. "Show time!"

He spin dashed into Pac-Man and happily pounded him into the carpet floor, purposely ignoring Lucas who had screamed and ran for help, in a few seconds the ionic arcade king was a statue.

"So it was you!" He grinned and jumped back, narrowly avoiding the angry swordsmen, "Of course it was!" Sonic sneered and pointed to Link, "You really didn't think that I wouldn't feel like an outcast among the enemy?"

Link paused and Sonic boldly continued, "If you haven't noticed, we have fighters from all over, from Capcom, old arcade games and even some forgotten nobodies!" he pointed to himself snarling, "And yet there's only one champion from Sega, who is just as big as Mario himself!"

"Sonic, what are you talking about?"

"Oh, you know what I'm talking about, but if you don't…" he lunged forward and began punching Link, "I'll. Happily. Knock. Some. Sense. Into. You!"

Link grunted and managed to bring his shield up and force the blue hedgehog off of him, Sonic laughed and jeered, "Catch me if you can!" And ran off, Link gave chase and nearly tripped over his feet when he saw Sonic and a Toon Link in blue looking around sword unsheathed and fists at the ready, Toon was pointing to the Sonic in front of him and saying something.

"What the…" Link mumbled,

"So I'm guessing that you don't know anything about this either?" he jumped and looked to see Zelda and Paltunea studying the scene from the safety of the wall.

"I… Not sure." Link admitted. Zelda frowned and folded her arms, "Perhaps we should focus on rounding up the dopple-gangers and ask the questions later."

Of course before he and Palutena could agree and attack the two Sonics tackled each other and hurled insults at one other. They quickly pulled them apart and used Link's grapple hook to tie them to a chair, "Alright," they stopped struggling for a moment and looked at Palutena who was aiming her staff at them, preparing to fire.

"Uh… Please tell me that your solution to finding out the true Sonic doesn't involve blasting us to bits." The Sonic on the left said, the Sonic on the right nodded in agreement and inched away the best he could away from the glowing staff.

Palutena gave them a smile that probably was to reassure them but instead caused more uneasy since the staff was a blinding blue, "Don't worry. I'm just going to cast a spell on you two that forces you to tell the truth." She leaned forward and her smile widened, "And whatever trick you may have up your sleeve isn't going to work."

"Uh, Palutena maybe you shouldn't-," ZAP! Link winched as two orbs crashed into chairs and knocked them over, He set them upright and winched as both Sonics' gave Palutena a pained glare silently asking her why she blasted them with magic.

Palutena gave them a smug grin and sat down in a comfy office chair that hadn't been there a few moments ago, "Now let the questioning begin!" She declared, Link looked to Zelda and Toon for help since he had no clue as to what Palutena had done to the two Sonics but they seemed equally confused as he did. It wasn't until Palutena asked, "What is your full name." That Zelda understood what she had done.

"A truth spell. Impressive." Zelda mumbled but then she frowned as both Sonic's answered with pained, embarrassed looks, "Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog."

"Olgilvie?" Toon repeated, "Your real first name is Olgilvie?" the Toon Link in blue was trying hard not to laugh as Sonic tried to defend his name, but he was drowned out by the other Sonic's shouts telling them to shut up.

Zelda looked at Palutena who was frowning, "Maybe the truth spell doesn't work on animals." Zelda suggested, Palutena shook her head and spun her staff, "Impossible, I used on Duck Hunt a couple days ago to see if he stole my book."

"And it worked?"

"It was flawless." Palutena said proudly.

"Let's try a different question." Link suggested before Zelda and Palutena could theorize about why the spell may have backfired, "Who is the person you hate the most."

"He is!" Link winched when both Sonics' once again answered at the same time and jerked their head back toward the other. "Have you turned anyone into trophies?"

"No!"

"This is pointless." Zelda sighed, "We can't ask them any personal questions since _we_ barely know anything about Sonic." Palutena opened her mouth to argue but stopped herself when she realized that she was right. "I have a couple questions that could count." The blue Toon Link said, he folded his arms and smirked, "Do you have a girlfriend

The Sonic on the right hesitated while the Sonic on the left proudly opened his mouth to answer then froze a look of despair briefly flickered in his green eyes. They finally answered with, "Undecided." And looked away.

"Are you working for anyone?"

"No!"

"Yes," Link glared at the Sonic on the left who was grinning smugly at them, "Who are you working for?" Link demanded, he growled slightly when Sonic coolly replied, "Ta, some weirdo who has it out for Sonic."

"Is he the one behind trophy attacks?" Zelda questioned,

"Nope!" the Sonic on the left happily popped the p and chuckled when he saw the frustrated scowls on his questioner's faces.

"How many of Ta's henchman are currently here?" Palutena asked, the Sonic on the left who was now known as a Fake pretended to look hurt and feebly gestured toward his heart, "Never knew a Goddess could be so cold." Palutena growled slightly and the Fake sighed and thought for a bit before he said,

"9, 10 if you count me." He leaned against his chair the best he could and gave them an even smugger smirk, "Now I have a question for you guys?" Zelda frowned but hesitantly asked, "What is it?"

"What are you guys going to do when I break free and drag the real Sonic into the fountain?"

The blue Toon Link scoffed and leaned forward, "And just how are you going to do that?" Toon tensed when he saw the smirk grow even wider and then jumped back as he neatly broke the chains with his bare hands, grab Sonic by the quill and run off into the park.

"After him!" Link ordered, everyone stumbled to chase after the Fake but they were halted by three tropies blocking the park pathway, "They got the Wii-Fit Trainers and Duck Hunt!" Zelda gasped.

"Incoming!" Link looked up and hit the ground as Sonic crashed into the ground, recovered then charged back into the battle yelling, "You're not getting away with this Scourge!"

Scourge grinned and pointed to the trophies, "Looks like we're about to Blue!"

"Hey!" Link watched as the blue Toon Link snapped, "That's my name!" and charge into the battle as well, ignoring Toon's warnings that he was going to hit the real Sonic.

"Looks like we're going to have to sit this one out." Zelda said as both Sonic's collide and began wrestling in the fountain water, "Maybe we can mark the fake one to make it easier to recognize?" Palutena suggested.

"Yea, but which one's the fake?" Toon asked. None of them had an answer to that. Link growled slightly as the feeling of being useless sank in he sat down on the path with a huff and watched the battle in hopes of find any clues.

"I'm not making the same mistakes as last time Sonic!" The fake cried,

"Really? Could have fooled me!" Sonic caught the fake off guard with a quick kick to the face followed up with a spin dash.

"Really?" The fake landed and grabbed Sonic by the arm, hurling him into a tree, "Because I see one major improvement that you don't!"

Sonic grunted and rubbed his head before he rolled away from the fake's attempt to punch him into and past the tree, Sonic tackled him and growled, "And what's that?"

"The fact that he can actually run a working team." A smooth haughty voice answered, Blue tensed and pulled his sword out. "I know that voice…" he growled.

Toon paled and Link frowned, "Who is it then?" Blue stood up and braced himself, "Vaati." Link pulled out his own sword when he heard the venom in Blue's voice, if this guy was an enemy of this blue Toon Link then it was his enemy as well.

Sonic shoved the fake away who happily rolled to a tree and pulled a small bag out of the tree as a boy dressed in practically all purple with crimson red eyes stepped out of the shadows, a wicked grin on his pale purple face.

"I don't think we've formally met before." The boy said, he raised his arms and the wind stirred and started forming a small tornado around him, "I, am Vaati, and you are about to become one with the floor."

Sonic was about to joke about Vaati's interdiction when he was slammed into the ground, "I… I can't move!" Sonic gasped. He couldn't even look up to glower at his enemies. All he could do was focus on breathing which seemed to growing harder and harder to do.

The fake gave a sigh of relief and pulled on a black leather jacket with flames and placed a pair of red sunglasses on his face. Link watched as the colors melted off of him reveling green fur, cold blue eyes and two scars on his stomach.

"It's good to be back." Scourge said, he kicked off Sonic's trademark running shoes and happily placed a pair of thick black boots on his feet, "And even better to see Sonic eating dirt." Scourge stomped down hard on Sonic's head and sneered down at him.

"How's it feel to be at the bottom of the food chain Blue?"

"Pretty good since I'm at the top jerk!" Scourge sidestepped as Blue lunged and slashed widely at him, "Huh, I thought we only have green to worry about V."

Vaati growled and forced the winds to pin Blue against the tree, "I forgot about the side effects of the Four Swords," he glared at his shadow and snarled, "And since someone seems to be having a conflict about spying we're on our own!"

"Look on the bright side V," Scourge pointed to Blue who was struggling against the winds and trying to yell threats at them, "At least you can take care of one of them."

Vaati grinned and started to unsheathe a thin rapier, Link charged forward while Zelda and Palutena tried to use their magic to prevent what was about to happen, Scourge watched as Vaati's winds forced them to back down and laughed, "You're too slow!"

Vaati smirked and aimed his blade at Blue's chest, "Say hello to the others for us." He lunged forward preparing to strike when a gently yet strong wind forced his sword away from Blue's chest and into the tree.

Vaati yelped in surprise and slowly turned around prepared to destroy the fool who had so nicely stopped him from murdering one of the annoying pests in his life to see-

"You!" Toon ignored Vaati's angry roar and focused on controlling the winds trying his best with the Wind Waker to pull the power of the winds away from Sonic to give him some breathing space and to distract Vaati long enough for Blue to escape.

So far so good, even though Scourge quickly went to stop Sonic by using him as a doormat and keeping a cold glare on Blue who was slowly worming away as Vaati focused on knocking the Wind Waker out of Toon's grasp and hurling insults at him.

"You pathetic hero! How did YOU find a way to control the winds!?" Vaati demanded, Toon grunted and fought back as Vaati slowly understood the Wind Waker's limits.

Even though it was a magically artifact of light it wasn't supposed to be used for battles, it controlled the harsh winds to help Toon with his sailing and for mind control puzzles.

He could feel the magic burning against his fingertips as he feverishly guided Vaati's winds away from his friends, he could slowly see Link and Zelda getting up but just how long could he continue this?

Vaati noticed his hesitation as he guided a sharp blade of wind into a tree and sneered, "Getting tired boy?" Toon yelped as a gust of air sent him sliding backwards, "I'm just getting started!" Vaati hissed.

"Oh no…" Toon mumbled as three tornados flew toward him, he rolled out of the way and pulled out a bomb just as Vaati sent an army of fireballs at him, "Okay now you're being a showoff." Toon snapped.

Vaati simply smirked at him and forced him to keep dodging. "Hey V! Stop focusing on Green and on the people about to get up!" Scourge suggested, Vaati scowled but paused in his game of chasing Toon long enough to slam Link and Zelda back into the ground.

Scourge rolled his eyes at Vaati's show of wind storms and fire barrage and glanced down at Sonic, "Don't worry, he's not an egomania all the time." Sonic rolled his eyes and grumbled something into the dirt. Scourge sighed and pulled Sonic out of the ground,

"Well, it's been fun and all but we've have to go." Scourge grinned and waved goodbye as he dragged Sonic along the pavement, "See ya later!" Vaati finished his attack by slamming Toon into a tree and smirked at Zelda who growled something very un-lady like, "Have fun playing damage control princess."

"Heads up!" Vaati glanced behind him and yelped as a bomb hit him square in the face, knocking him out cold, "Really V? Defeated by a mere bomb?" Scourge half teased, half sighed he glanced at Sonic who was slowly beginning to struggle after recovering slightly and slammed him into a tree, also knocking him out.

"Welp, looks like we have to get our hands dirty." Scourge said, Zelda sat up and questioned, "We?" while Lady Paltuena sat up and aimed a blue energy ball at him, "Honestly, I just want to smack that stupid grin off his face." She growled.

"Well that doesn't sound very lady like!" A voice teased, Toon looked around to see no one but them and the shadow-oh no… Paltuena stood up and slammed her staff into the ground, "Alright! Who ever's there better come out of the shadows or els-," she stopped as a purple bullet slammed into her chest knocking her back into a crater.

Link stood up and spun his sword in a slow arc to deflect the other bullets as Wolf stepped out of the shadows giving them a chilling wolf like grin, "Nice to see you, fairy boy."

Link frowned, but focused on notching his bow n arrow and pointing it at Scourge and Wolf who were surveying them and Vaati with smug grins, "I'm guessing you're the reason why Fox is a trophy?" Link asked.

"Of course." Wolf replied, "I would have gotten Falco as well but…" Scourge's ear perked up and he shot Wolf a look of disbelief, "We gave you three hours to get rid of that birdbrain and you still couldn't do it?!" Wolf growled and looked away angrily huffing, "He thought we were dancing! He refused to stand still until I kicked him in a closet!"

"Is he… Still in the closet?" Toon asked trying not to grin at Wolf even though his adventures with Falco were hilarious.

"No! He's… currently tied to the train station floor and being found by Mario and some Monado boy."

Scourge face palmed and readjusted his glasses realizing that even more people were onto them.

"Great going Howler, just peachy!"

"Oh shut up! You barely could do your job without the stupid mage!" Wolf snapped and pointed to Vaati, "Who is currently in dreamland!"

"Hey at least WE complete our mission!"

Toon glanced at Blue who was watching the argument with disbelief, "So… Should we attack or…?" Link asked, unsure if the argument was trap. Zelda sighed and readied Din's fire, "Let's just stick to long distance attacks until we're sure."

"That, I can handle." Palutena summoned three blue glowing balls of magic and fired them alongside Zelda's fire ball, Blue resorted to bombs and Link fired his arrow, Toon stood on the sidelines since he didn't have his bow, boomerang or bombs since Vio and Blue stole them.

They attacked would have nailed the arguing villains if Scourge hadn't noticed them at the last second and dodged letting Wolf take the full force of the attacks, "REALLY!?"' Wolf roared as he climbed out of the fountain, "No warning or anything Scourge?!" Scourge shrugged and picked up Sonic, "Sorry Wolfy, It's every wolf for himself."

Wolf growled and whipped out his gun not really caring who or what he shot as Scourge strolled to exit. "Oh you're not going anywhere punk!" Blue yelled, Scourge glanced over his shoulder as Blue hurled a bomb at him, "Really? Cause it seems like I'm heading for the exit." Scourge sneered, easily sidestepping the attack.

Blue lunged and attempted to decapitate Scourge's head only to be slammed into the ground with a solid punch to the face, Scourge tsked and waved a finger in his face, "Gotta be faster than slowpoke."

Blue growled and tried again only to be sent flying into a tree, "As I said before, See ya!" Scourge turned around and stopped, slightly surprised to see Link blocking his path, "Aw man! You were the one we _weren't_ supposed to fight!"

"Gee, thanks for the pity." Link grumbled, he raised his sword and pointed it at Scourge's head, "Don't know why I'm even offering this but, hand over Sonic or else."

Scourge sighed and scratched his head, "Really? That has to be the king of cheesy lines to say to a villain." Vaati groaned in agreement before going back to sleep, "See! Even the dazed mage agrees with me!"

Link hesitated but kept his sword up, "Well it was worth a shot." He grumbled before he slashed upward knowing full well that Scourge was going to dodge, he did, tossing Sonic causally to the side and dodging Link allowed a small smile as he performed a spin attack.

"Link watch out!" Link abruptly stopped at Zelda and Toon's warning and froze when he saw his sword nearly blocked by a smaller sword, if he hadn't stopped right then and there boy wielding the sword could have easily caught him off guard and got in a couple hits.

Link jumped back and studied his opponent feeling a slight sense of Deja-vu from his green uniform and blonde hair, "He looks… Just like you Link." Palutena said, the boy put his sword around and calmly stated, "Correction, he looks just like me."

"And I'm guessing you're the one who beat up Vio?" Toon guessed, the boy nodded and pulled a red potion out of his pocket, he studied it for a moment before he replied, "He fought well even when he was cornered, he still managed to fight a proper battle."

"Yea, I'll relay the message AFTER I pound you into the ground!" Blue snarled. Toon sighed since he had a feeling that Blue was once again going to be sent flying into a tree but was proven wrong when Blue switched back to his sword and managed to force the boy to turn around to block,

"Hate to break it to you, but…" the boy pointed to Link, "I only came to fight him, I've been told after the Vio incident to leave you four alone. Also, here's a potion"

Blue growled but took a step back and caught the red potion. It was obvious that if they did start fighting the boy would merely block and dodge all of his attacks, so he instead shifted his attention to Scourge and Wolf.

Scourge rolled his eyes and nudged Sonic, "About time you showed up Mask! Being distractions isn't fun with V in dreamland." Vaati groggily sat up and mumbled, "As soon as everything stops ringing, you're dead."

"Distractions?!" Blue pointed to Scourge who waved hello just to get on his nerves, "These three were distractions?!"

"More or less, they did have a mission to complete but it was minor compared to ours." Mask explained, he glanced down at his shadow and nodded.

Palutena tensed and readied her staff, "Get ready Zelda." Zelda nodded and watched as the shadow detracted from Mask and sped toward Scourge and Wolf, it paused then a portal opened underneath them swallowing them into the darkness. It then sped over to Sonic only to pause when Toon fired a Light Arrow, "Go on," Toon growled, "I dare ya."

Blue growled and lunged toward the shadow yelling "Toon, that's only going to encourage him!"

Link readied his own bow and arrow only to be stopped by Mask who aimed his sword at Link's throat with ease, "I think you should be preoccupied with my question Hero of Twilight."

Link growled but lowered his bow slightly, "What question?" Mask pointed his sword toward the Goddess of Light and the Princess of Wisdom and sullenly asked.

"Who would you choose?" Link opened his mouth to confidently answer when Mask added, "If you could only save one of them, who would you choose? Zelda, or Lady Palutena?"

"I would save them both there's no way I would just let one die and the other live!" Link retorted, he tore his eyes away from the barrage of attacks that the shadow was easily dodging taunting Blue as he chased it away with a hammer.

Mask narrowed his eyes with pity, as if he had been asked this question many times, "If you can't make up your mind. Then how are you a hero? Everyone makes sacrifices, like it or not." He lowered his sword and looked down at the ground a haunting look on his face, "I know this firsthand by following my written future."

Link growled and smacked the sword out of Mask's hand snapped, "And how would a kid like you understand that! I understand that sacrifices must be made but isn't the point of playing the role of a hero to prevent others from dying!?"

"First off, I am not a child." Mask said, his voice barely above an angry whisper. Link heard a quiet yelp from Vaati who had finally recovered from the bomb.

Blue and Toon stopped chasing around the shadow which had abruptly stopped, watching the scene unfold. Mask picked up his sword and stated, "I am the Hero of Time and the savor of Termina!"

Vaati backed away and yelled, "Shadow! Stop fooling around and let's go!" the shadow jumped and summoned a portal underneath Vaati then went to Sonic to do the same.

"Oh no you don't!" Palutena fired a beam of heavenly light which pierced the portal destroying it instantly, there was a scream of pain and the shadow fled into the darkness with Paltuena and Zelda hot on its trail, "Hey wait!" Blue chased after them yelling, "Don't beat him up too much!"

Toon was about go after them when he heard the rest of Mask's statement, "I challenge you to a duel Hero of Twilight on Hyrule Temple! If I win then you must choose between Palutena or Zelda being the survivor." Link growled and retorted, "And if I win you have to reveal this Ta's plans!"

Toon gulped since Mask seemed like a harden warrior with a harsh past, he hoped that Link knew what he was getting into…

* * *

 **Dun-dun-dun! A cliff hanger between two Links! Who will win?!**

 **Also, Thank you Sammy and ViolettaSushi for the reviews That were were me six chapters ago!... I blame Ta for not being able to thank you guys sooner -**


	8. Chapter 8, Mistakes have been made

**If I owned any of the characters, than I would have an actually plot line for Super Smash Bros that explains where the heck some of the bosses come from.  
**

* * *

Three figures watched the chaos unfold on the world of Smash, two of them unable to stomach how easily their fighters were trophies. Soon there would barely be a handful of fighters left to fight against this new threat. They watched as the Links in purple and red hide in shadows trying to recover from witnessing a brutal kidnapping and a slightly hilarious battle between Wolf and Falco.

Finally, one of the figures spoke after the battle of Link Vs Mask began, "We have to do something." A crazed laughter filled the empty space and offered, "How about we blow up!"

Master Hand gave a tired sigh, as if he had heard this suggest before and wearily reminded his crazed counterpart "We can't blow them up since we would blow up our own fighters." And as always, Crazy Hand ignored the answer and giggled, "Destruction is fun…"

"Of course it is." Master Hand grumbled, he turned his attention back to the screen where Mask was soundly destroying Link on Hyrule Temple, Link had only managed to do 30% of damage while Mask had him already at 150%, the knock out rate.

Master Hand hesitated before he said "In order to salvage what's left, we're going to need some outside help." Crazy Hand stopped twitching and slowly turned to face his sane yet annoying counterpart, slowly asking "Are you… Thinking of breaking the rules…?" Master Hand snapped his fingers forcing the picture to show the Wii-U screen which showed two Miis' chasing after Mario.

"Yes, we've already lost a good chunk of our fighters and it's clear that he managed to bring back more characters who aren't from our tournament." Master Hand stated, he pointed to the Mii playing Mario who was walking around a green block evading the Blue toad with barely any effort.

Master Hand sighed, "Although we're only going to be able to summon one of the humans who own this console, it's better than nothing."

Crazy Hand started twitching which soon escalated to a seizure of motion as his anger rose, "One?! There are three of them there! All three of them pla-," Master Hand quickly cut him off saying, "Only one of them continuously plays their handhold and only one of them drags others into playing with her! Also…"

Crazy Hand waited before Master Hand sheepishly added, "She's the only who's fully connected to us in the way of data transfers, so even though we could include the middle child…"

"It wouldn't work since she never transferred fighters." Crazy Hand deadpanned, he flopped onto the platform and rolled around for a bit, "Why can't we just blow everything upppp!?" he whined, "It's less worrrrrk!"

If Master Hand had a face he would surely face palm right about now, yes the eldest had the connection between both games which would make summoning her easier and a lot less risky. She also had a ton of virtual resources from other eras which could help combat the enemy's forces without risking the loss of man power but he couldn't help but feel a nagging itch at how easy it all seemed.

"Do it." Both hands jumped as Master Core slowly appeared, quietly repeating, "Do it." Crazy Hand whimpered and crawled off the stage at Master Core's sudden arrival, Master Core ignored him and focused on Master Hand, "You said it yourself. So why not put your words where your mouth is."

"He doesn't have a mouth…" Crazy Hand mumbled, "He has a hand…" Master Hand and Master Core wisely chose to ignore the destructive manic and continued talking.

Crazy Hand busied himself with watching Link get destroyed by Mask and saying crazy comments such as, "Blow him up! He isn't dead until you blow him up silly!" Or, "I wonder why Mask isn't using any of his masks… I sure would like to see him be a Zora!" followed by crazed laughter and annoyed glares from Master Hand and Master Core.

"Fine, we'll summon her the moment she powers on her 3ds." Master Hand decided, Master Core nodded in agreement and glanced at the screen. The battle was nearly over with Link barely standing a chance of making a comeback, "Perhaps… We should start by bending the rules in our favor before she comes." Master Core suggested.

"Can we blow it-,"

"NO!"

Crazy Hand flinched and crawled into a corner, sulkily shooting Master Hand and Master Core offended glares from time to time as the prepared to break one of their own sacred rules.

Never, interfere with a match unless a game breaking glitch appeared.

Crazy Hand felt a trickle of existent as he realized that many more rules would be broken, along with dimensional boundaries. He giggled and rolled the idea around for a bit before he returned his gaze back to the TV, where Mask had more or less trapped Link with a pitfall, prepared to end the match with a swift up-B attack.

Or he would have if Master Hand hadn't forced the match to end in a draw, both Links looked around in surprise but Mask quickly recovered and said something, judging by the slow fury that was building it wasn't anything good.

Crazy Hand giggled as Mask promptly left and hide behind his Stone Mask. Leaving a fuming hero in his wake.

* * *

"Alright, first things first." Link studied the four Toon Links who were watching him with slight unease, the only one who wasn't disturbed by the fact that they were trapped in a room with angry fighters was Vio. And that was probably because he was too busy being irritated with his slight concussion which had reappeared when they witness Falco get attacked by Wolf.

"Who are you guys?" Link asked, Green opened his mouth to speak but Red cheerfully beat him to the punch, "We're the heroes of the Four Swords!"

"That doesn't answer anything." Mario said between gritted teeth. Green tried to ignore how angry Mario sounded since it was understandable, apparently someone had tacked a note to Luigi's trophy jabbing at Mario for ignoring his cowardly brother and treating him like a house maid.

Luckily Pikachu seemed to be the only one who wasn't angry at their sudden appearance and asked, "Four Sword? Is that why there are four of you?"

"Yup! The Four Sword split Link into four people!" Red replied,

"That's what it's supposed to do," Vio clarified, "But Green wields the Master Sword, not the Four Sword so we aren't exactly sure why we are four once more."

"So, you just magically appeared?" Samus asked.

"More or less." Blue grumbled, "We think it's because Shadow Link came back, and since he's our shadow he forced us to split apart again."

"So we hunt down this Shadow Link fellow and you'll disappear?" Samus questioned, Vio frowned and shook his head, "No, he was originally created from the Dark Mirror. It shouldn't exist in this timeline since it was destroyed."

"So we got one mystery solved." Link grumbled, "Great, but what about this Mask fellow?"

"Judging from my brief battle with him, he might indeed be the Hero of Time and Savor of Termina." Vio said, "He was untrained though, relying more on his masks and his varied of swords from what I could see."

"Maybe Gannondorf knows something about Mask." Samus suggested, "After all, Bowser's always talking about how it took Gannon seven years to take over Hyrule."

"Maybe." Link mumbled, "I'll ask him afterwards."

Samus bit back a sigh and looked around the small group, only six remaining council members left, and one of them was busy protecting his little buddy while Kirby was busy playing with the villagers.

He was never formally invited since he seemed to young to understand what was going on. Plus, he couldn't really give any input since the only people could understand him was King Dedede and Metaknight.

"Were getting nowhere!" Mario snapped, Red yelped as the plumber's hands caught aflame, "They've trapped us and can strike at any moment! We're sitting ducks!"

Pikachu hesitated slightly before he said, "What if I told you that I found someone whose working with this Ta person."

"Then everyone would probably do a happy dance." Blue grumbled, Toon shot him a glare while Samus asked, "So who is it?"

Pikachu heisted again and asked, "Will you all promise not to get mad if I get them?" Link and Mario exchanged looks and nodded. Pikachu sighed and quickly left the room, when he returned it was nearly impossible for Red not to snatch up the four pale yellow creatures and hug them to death.

"Pichus!?"

Pikachu winched at Mario's outburst and quickly defended them, "I found them when Lucas arrived and kept them hidden so you guys wouldn't attack them!"

One of the Pichus hugged Pikachu and said, "Best big brother ever!" while another wearing googles chirped, "We were awesome super spies!"

"Yea!" a Pichu wearing a green backpack tumbled on the floor to prove his comrade's point, "Super awesome!"

The Pichu wearing a pirate scar around its ear and frowned, as if forgetting something. "So you've been spying on us?" Mario questioned,

"More or less, we were the diverters or something." Pichu frowned and shrugged his tiny shoulders, "I forgot. Hey Adventure, do you remember?"

"No," Adventure said, he adjusted his tiny backpack and said, "I just remember that we were supposed to set up a call or something when we got found."

"But, Lady already found us." Sky reminded them, Pikachu tensed and gave them a look which they quickly cowered under, "We didn't turn her into a trophy or anything!" Adventure squeaked, "We just… Glue her hat to a tree."

"A pirate tree-,"

"Shut up Pirate!" Adventure snapped, Pirate frowned and muttered, "Your just jelly."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"You're both jelly!" Pichu cheered, Pirate and Adventure glared at him and snapped, "Liar!" and tackled him. Pikachu groaned and pulled them apart, "Behave! And set up the video thingy you were babbling about on the way here."

"Um, are you sure that allowing baby Pokemon to set up a video conference is a good idea?" Samus asked, the Pichus growled slightly at Samus and quickly pulled out a small computer, before anyone of them could fully register what was going on the computer was set up and online.

"Wow…" was all Samus could say, Sky stuck his tongue out at her and typed something in the log in screen. Vio winched and squeezed his eyes shut, "Vio? Are you okay?" Red asked.

"Oh yea, you five should probably leave the room." Pichu said, he pointed to the only people carrying swords, "Apparently, portable electrical pluses plus magic equals headaches or something."

"Plus since your both beat up your going to be a lot more aware than wolf boy." Pirate added. Red frowned and studied his ankle, "But I feel fine."

"Lucky you." Vio grumbled.

"Oh! We're online!" Adventure waved hello at the camera as a butterfly logo appeared on the black screen, "Yo! Spark Squad here!"

"…Stop sounding cheerful." A emotionless voice said, Adventure pouted and whined, "But's it's fuuuunnnn!"

"And annoying!" Sky added.

"…Shut up.."

The Sky stuck his tongue out while Mario asked, "Who are you?" the person on the other side sighed, "02. Make them shut up." Pikachu frowned while Samus giggled, "That name sounds ridiculous."

"Says the walking robot." 02 retorted. Samus growled but stopped laughing, Link ignored her and tried to get some info out of 02, "I'm guessing your leader isn't around."

"Don't worry, he'll be appearing-," there was a loud thud that interrupted 02 briefly and then a loud cry of "SHUT UP REPTILE!" before the line went quiet, "Shortly." 02 finished.

"Well in that case. I'm getting Marth." Link briefly leaned against the wall and before he left and grumbled, "Stupid headaches, never got them before."

They waited for a moment before Link returned with Marth who still look half asleep. Red had almost forgotten that it was still morning and judging by the surprise faces of everyone else they had forgotten as well.

"What's going on?" Marth yawned. Link pointed to the computer and then the Spark Squad who were waving hello, "We're getting a chance to say hello to their leader."

Marth studied the Pichus, rubbed his eyes for the last time before tried his best to look awake. It wasn't that convincing since he still looked half asleep, even after Ta kicked open a door and grumbled something about a reptile.

"Yello? Whose speaking?" Ta asked.

"Hi boss!" Sky chirped, "We're in a meeting room with a sleepy knight and comrades!"'

"I'm not asleep." Marth mumbled, Link gave him a look of disbelief and pushed Marth toward a wall, tired of being a leaning post. Red bit back a giggle as Marth jolted awake and shot Link a death glare before focusing on the computer.

"You seem quite confident for someone who wishes to stay in the shadows." Marth noticed, Ta laughed and they could hear the faint squeak of a chair spinning, "Of course I'm confident! I'm winning!"

"Not for-," Blue started to say when Ta yelled, "Winning, winning, winning!"

"…Does he always act like this?" Vio asked, Adventure and Pichu exchanged glances and shrugged, "More or less." Mario and Link face palmed at the fact that they were dealing with a possible man child.

"Now let's see…" Ta stopped spinning and thought for a bit, "There was something important I wanted to say…"

"Besides, Winning?" Red questioned.

"No, WINNNING!" Ta snickered and clapped his hands, "Ahh… I really wish that this thing had a camera…."

"Why? So we could punch you in the face?" Samus asked, "Since Mario's been on fire all morning…"

"Oh! Now I remember!" if Red could see Ta's face it probably would have had a smug smile on his face, "I came to gloat! Since Mask didn't give his warning or whatever."

"Gloat?" Blue snorted and leaned back, "Go ahead, you villains always need a reason to gloat over something idiotic."

"Hey, I didn't get to gloat last time!" Ta snapped, "So now's my chance!"

Marth sighed and made a gesture that probably meant get over it already, Ta sensed this and laughed, "Geez, fun killers. Then again, I guess the weight of defeat is giving you a reason."

Mario growled and was about to say something when Ta continued, "And without that coward Luigi hanging around you guys won't have anything to laugh at."

Red gulped as he felt the room get ten times hotter, "Then again, you probably didn't notice or care. Did you Mario?" Mario growled a bit louder as Ta continued, "Then again, with so many important heroes fighting against each other, it's easy for the weaker ones to disappear in the shadows."

Samus tensed while Mario roared, "SHUT UP!" Ta of course ignored him and teased, "Oh dear, I think I pressed to many buttons on a certain plumber."

"Ya think" Blue grumbled.

"Hmmm... Maybe!" Ta chirped, "But I don't think I pressed enough…"

"This seems more like rubbing salt in the wound than gloating…" Red murmured,

"Oh! That's because that's what gloating does!" Ta answered. He laughed and spun in his chair once more, "You really are a child!" Red frowned and puffed his cheeks out, he didn't usually mind being called a child since he was supposedly childish but he didn't like how Ta had said it.

"And the best part about all this is that your all sitting ducks!" Ta jeered, "You can't do anything against me! You don't even know my super-duper plan!"

"Well, we know it's something along the lines of revenge." Marth said, "Since you don't seem to be aiming for anyone really."

"Pff! It's not about revenge!" Ta snorted, he laughed and mumbled, "totally not about revenge…." Pichu faced palmed while Blue covered his mouth to stifle laughter.

"So, are you done reveling your awesome plan or are you going to gloat more?" Marth asked. There was a brief moment of silence before Ta grumbled, "Spoilsports." And left the call. Everyone waited for a bit to see if he would come back but he didn't.

"Well…" Vio said, "That was… interesting." Blue and Toon nodded in agreement while Samus said, "He was insane." Adventure scowled at her and grumbled, "Your just jelly."

"Why would I be jelly?"

"Because he has awesome stairs!" Pichu boasted.

"So? I have gun." Samus said, "And bombs. Which can blow up stairs."

"Well. Uh…" Adventure turned to Sky and Pirate who frowned, not knowing what else he had, "We have an awesome dining room!" Pichu finally realized, he grinned and put his tiny hands on his hips, "With a moving ceiling!"

"…Now that sounds coooool…" Samus admitted Marth frowned and said, "Can we please focus on the matter at hand? And not the moving ceiling?" Pichu glanced at Pikachu who was giving him a look, "Fine!" Pichu grumbled, "There are a total of three spies besides the super duper awesome Spark Squad! And you've already figured out who two of the spies are."

"Mask and Shadow?" Link guessed, Sky nodded and added, "And 3 Rehtom, he's been here too."

"3 Rehtom?" Mario frowned and asked, "What kind of name is that?" Pirate scowled and waved an invisible sword at his face, "It's a code name! And you gotta figure it out!"

"Yea! Ta's all about riddles!" Pichu boasted, Adventure frowned at this and said, "I thought he was about changing how our house looked."

"That too Adventure."

Red tentatively raised his hand before the council members could figure out what 3 Rehtom meant and asked, "Are we free to go now? I'm running out of ice."

"And I, have a concussion." Vio interjected, Link frowned since he felt that their story was a bit vague but nodded yes, "But you four had better be in your room when this meeting's over."

Blue scowled at him and opened his mouth to argue but Toon stopped him and dragged him outside, "Let's focus on getting Vio and Red to Doctor Mario before we start fights." Toon suggested.

"Fine." Blue grumbled, "But I'm not happy about being treated like a prisoner." Vio sighed and gave Blue a dark look, "How about you focus on something more important, like figuring out who really helped Red out of that cave."

Red stumbled and laughed nervously, "I climbed out myself."

"With a broken ankle." Vio said, Red nodded and shrank under Blue and Vio's glare, "Are you guys going to lock me in Toon's room until-,"

"Until you confess?" Vio guessed, "Yes." Red groaned and tried to say something but Blue gave him a look which forced Red to shut up or face the hammer. Toon grimaced slightly and tried to ease the unease tension to his room, "Look on the bright side, at least we'll have peace and quiet now."

He opened the door and frowned at the even thicker tension that had suddenly appeared, "Okay, that was supposed to be a joke, not sure if jokes are different in your weird time period but still. It was a poor attempt at a joke."

"Really? Since that was a bad joke."

Toon looked inside and focused on his bed where a battered and bruised Shadow was sitting a weary grin on his face.

"Ohhh…" Toon looked back at the Four Sword Trio who looked nervous and angry, "That's why the tension became thicker."

"Really?" Shadow chuckled weakly and leaned against the wall, "Well, it's probably going to break once… I …" Toon yelped as Shadow collapsed on the bed and passed out.

"…As soon he wakes up." Red started to say, "I'm beating him to a pulp."

* * *

 _"Ready to die?" Shadow Link tensed at the girl's question, "No…" he whispered._

 _"Then die!"_

 _A blur of blue and pink were the only sight he could see as the duo mercilessly attacked him. Was he really going to die? Against these weirdos? He gasped in pain as the team attack finally ended and he was able to see his attackers._

 _it was distorting, one moment he could easily see a pink haired female wearing skimpy clothing while carrying a black cat then the next moment he would see the boy with carrot hair with purple and black headphones. What distorted him the most was how the stage seemed to change, like he was looking at two different pictures of the same scene at the same time._

 _He tried to stand up as the boy hovered momentarily in the air before he landed, "Leave." Was all he said. Shadow laughed trying his best not to seem afraid, "What's wrong? Afraid I'm going to beat you?"_

 _"No." he flinched at how serious the boy sounded. "I just wanted to give you a warning. I'm not here to erase you. Not yet at least."_

 _"Oh? Did you master order this?" Shadow jeered, he laughed weakly then leaned back as the boy teleported in front of him, "I have no master, only a partner. And if you don't stay out of the Dark world then I will erase you. And you'll be gone." Shadow gasped as the boy glared at him and said in a low whisper, "Forever."_

"Carrot top!" Shadow sat up and looked around, he was surrounded by four links but no carrot top. "Oh good… It was just a dream…" Shadow mumbled.

"More like a nightmare." Vio said, "You were thrashing around like crazy." Shadow looked around and fought back a cringe as he saw the once made bed now a tangled mess of blankets. "What were you dreaming about?" Blue asked, Shadow resisted the urge to look away and lied, "The Dark Mirror being destroyed."

"Dark Mirrors aren't the color of a carrot Shadow." Red reminded him, Shadow winched and looked away. Lovely, he had been mumbling in his sleep.

Just peachy, and after a quick glance at Vio who had already put the pieces as to who had really saved Red and was already onto his problem.

"What attacked you?" Shadow blinked at Toon who took a break from rummaging around in his chest for something, Toon pointed to his injured hand, "Did something from this Dark World place attack you?"

Shadow hid his right hand and mumbled, "It wasn't from the Dark World."

"And it wasn't your teammate?" Vio questioned.

"No… I don't know what it was." Shadow admitted he fought back a chill and focused on controlling his breathing. He wasn't scared, not of some creepy carrot-

"Hug time!" Shadow yelped as Red gave him a tight hug crushing his ribs and reminding him of his many bruises and cuts. Blue quickly pulled Red away when he saw the grimace of pain on Shadow's face.

"Geez, whoever did this to must have been a monster." Blue deiced. Shadow shuddered and said, "I don't know what it was."

Vio raised an eyebrow, "And your terrified since you can't pinpoint anything on this guy."

"That's not why I'm scared."

Toon and Red exchanged a look before Toon gently pressured Shadow, "Are you afraid that he might come back?" Shadow shook his head, "N-no… He told me that he wouldn't erase me unless I went back into the shadows."

"Erase?" Red frowned and tiled his head, "How can you be erased?"

"I don't know!" Shadow snapped, "All I know is that some carrot top werido and his girlfriend are either dead or a hidden shadow or- something and I can't fight back since it's just- ARGH!" Shadow flopped back against the pillow and curled into a ball, "I don't want to die again…" Shadow whimpered, "I don't want to be forgotten again."

Red hugged him again but with less force while Vio and Blue dragged Toon over to a corner to plan something. Shadow ignored them and focused on healing his wounds with some easy dark magic. Of course it was nearly impossible to do that thanks to Lady Angle of doom's dumb magic.

"Take it easy." Red suggested, "You're going to be fine." Shadow gave him a dark look and waved his hand around, "Yea, I'll be perfectly fine as my hand slowly turns into numbers." Red gasped and tried to touch a floating number, "What did he do to you?"

"They." Shadow corrected, "And to be frank, I had no idea what was going on."

"Huh?"

"It was… Weird, it felt like I was looking at two paintings that were nearly the same only, different in their own way. Like two landscapes of the same forest only from two different points of view." Shadow paused and scowled, "And that made absolutely no sense."

"I sort of understood it." Red said, Shadow glowered at his upbeat smile, of course Red was somehow cheerful, it was nearly impossible to get him upset when he was this cheery.

Shadow sighed and continued his explanation, "One moment I could easily see Carrot top whose fighting with his mind or something since he didn't have a weapon and the next thing I know I'm fighting his girlfriend and her creepy cat. It was just distorting."

"Wow, never would have thought that the mighty Shadow could be easily defeated by a cat." Blue teased, Shadow scowled at him and was about to attack him when Vio did it for him, "Let's focus on something more important." Vio suggested.

Shadow huffed indigently and sat up, "What's more important than me being nearly killed?" Vio sighed and shook his head, "Gee I don't know, maybe creating a cover story as to why there are now five Links in the room?"

"Oh yea…" Toon frowned, "I forgot that Link was coming to check on us." Shadow laughed nervously, "Oh he's going to have a field day."

"Yea." Blue growled, "A field day of us being criminals." Red gasped and fought back a couple tears, "We're criminals?" Shadow rolled his eyes and weakly punched Red, "Oh please, if anything you're just going to get in trouble for siding with me. He's not going to flip the whole place upside down like Ta would."

"No, but he might go wolf on us." Toon mumbled, Red gasped and squealed, "He can turn into a wolf?! AWESOME!" Shadow frowned and mumbled, "That's probably why his shadow seems so wolfish…"

Blue jumped on the bed and listed their problems, "So far, we have a mysterious attacker who dwells in the shadow world-,"

"And he's pretty much invisible until he picks a fight with you." Shadow interjected.

"Okay, so we have an invisible mysterious attacker whose hiding in the shadows and kicked Shadow out of the shadows and now we have to announce to everyone that he's on our side."

"Your side." Shadow corrected, "I'm only giving you three tips. Everyone else can jump off a cliff. Including the crazy angle lady. She can fall into an endless pit."

"And you're doing this because…?" Vio asked, Shadow scowled and looked at the wall, slightly embarrassed, "Red sort of knows, I made a deal with Ta, I help him and he allows me free access into the realm of light and spares you three."

"A deal to turn people into trophies." Red reminded him, Shadow laughed and rubbed his head, "You aren't going to turn and knock some more sense into me? Right?" Red gave him a look and said, "I won't if you go to Link right now and talk."

Shadow pouted and whined, "But he'll kill me. And probably blast me with his weird masks."

"He means our Link." Vio sighed.

"Oh, then no." Shadow rolled his eyes once more at the withering glares he was getting, "I'll talk about Mask, but not to Wolf boy, Ganny can tell him that."

"Well, at least we're getting some hints." Toon said when he noticed Blue's eye twitching, "And he sent me a warning,"

"Which Vaati stole when he saw what I was doing." Shadow interjected, Blue frowned and asked, "What warning."

"To stay away from Ridely, whoever that is." Toon replied, he frowned and looked at Shadow, "Whose that?" Shadow adjusted his hat and sarcastically said, "Oh no one really, just Samus's mortal enemy and a murderous dino bird with human I.Q points."

"Oh, so no big deal." Blue grumbled, Red laughed nervously and offered, "Well, no one seems to like Ridely's stage so we should be good for-,"

"Guys!" The door slammed open and Chibi stumbled inside, "Roy, Dark Pit and Zero are being attacked by a dino bird!"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Shadow exclaimed, he flopped back in the bed while Greninja peered inside, "Uh… Why are there five Toon Links."

"Long story." Blue grumbled he shoved past the frog with Toon close behind him, Red and Vio stayed behind and gave Shadow pointed looks until he grumbled something and sulkily followed them outside with a blanket.

Chibi looked to Greninja and frowned, "Are they playing a game?"

"No… I don't think so…"

* * *

Roy, just wanted a normal battle between him, Zero and surprisingly Dark Pit who seemed a lot smugger lately. What he didn't want was to be mocked by a usually silent board helper and nearly turned into trophies on a tiny stage.

"Incoming!" Roy countered just as Ridely took a wild slash at him, "Ha! Take that bird brain!" Roy jeered, Ridely gave him a terrifying smirk and managed to dodge the nearly perfect counter and force Zero to take the blow for him.

Roy yelped as Zero gave him a fiery glare before leaping into the air to battle Ridely, "Ugh… I keep forgetting that she's scary without her suit." Roy grumbled.

Dark Pit pivoted and managed a lucky air shot with his bow, "She wasn't scary before?" Dark Pit shook his head with a chuckle and easily flew out of Ridely's reach, "Please, she's just mad that her suit's faring without her.

"I can hear you!" Zero snapped, she blocked as Ridely attacked her and rolled away, "Less talking, more fighting!" she ordered. Roy nodded but felt his grip loosen slightly as he realized the impossible odds, Ridely was fierce, but usually just as an annoying variable to kill the players not a calculating monster. He had easily managed to whittle them down to 1 life a piece with his seemly perfect calculations and his knack for getting on Zero's nerves.

If Roy wasn't careful, he might end up accidentally killing Zero, and with the icy tension he had been sensing by every other fighter that wasn't from Fire Emblem, it was clear that he was going to end up in the doghouse and accused of working with this Ta person.

"Roy!" he jumped as Zero gave him a laser glare, "What are you doing!?" Ridely slowed down and hovered high above the stage, "Why Samus, I believe he's thinking his next moves." Zero shot the monster a glare and aimed her gun at him, Ridely smirked and tsk', "Don't you see Samus? Since he's figured it out, he can't fight back without the risk of killing you."

"He can too!" Zero snapped, Dark Pit landed beside her and pulled on her ponytail, "Uh, earth to Blondie, you're at 120%, one false move from fire boy and your dead."

"See! I have a reason to be careful!" Roy said, Zero sent him another glare while a quiet voice said, "But we don't." Surprised everyone stopped arguing/taunting and looked to the middle of the stage. A boy with bright orange hair wearing headphones lazily studied Ridely then looked to the girl with pink hair, standing beside him.

"Go on." The boy said, "We got this. You three need to regroup. Zero scowled at him and was about to argue that they were fine when the boy disappeared and attacked Ridely. There was a blinding flash of light that seemily kicked them from the stage.

"Are you three alright?" Roy opened his eyes and groaned, "Besides beat up and bruised? Fine." Peach gave a sigh of relief and was about to shoo Doctor Mario away when someone screamed, "It's Carrot Top!" followed by a groaned, Roy got up and focused on a Toon Link with purple hair pointing at the screen.

"Oh…" Toon said, "That's what you meant by distorted." Roy glanced back at the TV screen and took a double take, the screen was now split in half, the boy fighting on the bottom screen and the girl on top, and both of them were fighting Ridely.

Lucina frowned and exchanged glances with Shulk who was trying to process what was going on. "Their fighting skills are amazing." Lucario noted, he frowned slightly as the boy danced around Ridely, seemly teleporting and comboing the monster with rapid slashing movements.

"They also share the same hp." Mewtwo pointed out, Roy glanced at the side of the screen and focused on a half empty green bar, it quickly refilled when the boy dodged an attack from Ridely and took a sip from a soda can.

"I wonder why that cat's fighting." Zelda mused, Tie-Dye frowned and said, "Poor Kitty."

"Poor Kitty!?" Roy looked around and spotted a figure cowering behind Vio and Red angrily pointing at the TV screen, "That cat is evil! Evilll!" Vio nudged the figure and shot him a look before returning his gaze back to the TV screen.

"Ready to die?" The girl asked, "Then die!" The boy finished, they launched into a combo attack and watched as the screen froze and Ridely dissolved into static before seemingly exploding. "That was easy." The boy mumbled while the girl cheered, "Great job Neku!"

The random city scene disappeared and was quickly replaced by an after battle screen before the TV returned to normal, "Who… Was that?" Lucina asked, she looked around to see if anyone had any clues but all she received were puzzled looks and a quiet mumble from Shulk who was attempting to figure out what had just happened.

"Well, we know that his name is Neku." Bowser said, surprisingly being optimistic, Dark Pit frowned and stated the question everyone had been wondering about, "Yea, but whose side is he on? The evil trophy team or ours?"

"Well he's not on the evil trophy team." Roy turned around and saw the figure slowly inching forward toward the middle of the room, he readied his sword and heard similar hisses of metal scrapping against sheathes fill the room.

The figure stopped and laughed nervously, "Hey chillax, I've been kicked out of the Shadow Realm by this Neku weirdo." He put his hands up only to quickly put them back down when his blanket slipped.

"Shadow Realm?" Palautena summoned her staff and pointed it to the figure who groaned and pointed at her, "Why is the crazy angle queen here?" Toon shot him a look and urged him to continue, "Fine, long story short he magically appeared like a ghost, kicked my butt and banned me from the Realm of Shadows with a threat of being erased."

He looked around at the still drawn weapons and sighed, "Geez, you guys really need to lighten up." He pointed to the other Toon Links and said, "Also, there on your side and are here to stay."

Roy glanced around the room to see if anyone else believed the boy, there had been rumors of an early attack which Palutena had quickly clarified and given alarming news of possible spies and the trophies of Luigi, Wii-Fit trainer, Pac-man, Fox and nearly Sonic and Falco. Sonic was currently being treated by Doctor Mario while Falco had continued acting like an idiot.

Vio, stepped forward and said, "He's trustworthy-,"

"Only to you three." Shadow interjected, Vio glared at him and continued, "He's more or less on our side since he's been kicked out of the Shadow Realm and can't report back to Ta."

Gannondorf shook his head and pointed to the Shadow, his voice dripping with disbelief, "And you trust him why? He's already proven himself to be a nusice."

Shadow bristled slightly and retorted, "And you have proven yourself to be a jerk! I seriously don't get why people trust you when you've been withholding important information about Mask!"

Roy frowned and focused on Gannondorf who growled slightly at the many eyes on him, Shadow sneered and added, "Don't forget that you've also battled him along with Wolfboy, admit it. You realized who he was from his magic imprint."

"Gannondorf." Zelda gave the warlock a hard look and said, "Is this true?" Gannondorf glared at the triumphant Shadow before he answered the Princess, "Mask, was the more or less the originally Link who split the timelines, The Hero of Time. He could more or less bend time to his will and jump back and forth between the seven year gap I had created."

Gannondorf glanced at Link and hmpfed slightly, "I believe that you also fought him as well, Hero of Twilight." Link tensed slightly but said nothing, allowing Gannondorf to finish talking, "I don't exactly know what happened to him after he defeated me, but I do know that Zelda sent him back to his original timeline, before I appeared to prevent the damage I had caused."

"So… In reality you don't know why or how Mask become so anti hero?" Toon asked, Gannondorf frowned in surprise and questioned, "Anti Hero?"

"He was trying to force me between saving Zelda or Lady Palutena." Link growled, "As if I would ever do that." Rosalina placed a comforting hand on Link's shoulder and attempted to calm him while Shadow quickly whispered something to Red, "Oh! Shadow says that in three days, Mask will more or less enter a coma like state." Red translated, then he hesitated and added, "But that's also the day that Ta's forces will invade."

Marth frowned and exchanged a look between his Fire Emblem force, Roy knew that look from tight situations in war to know that it was planning time. He nodded and glanced at the clock, it was already 2 pm. Surprising since he still felt like was later than that with all the news of fallen heroes.

He slipped out of the crowd and followed Marth to his room, everyone else from Fire Emblem doing the same while the slow buzz of chatter filled the cafeteria.

He collapsed on Marth's bed and looked around the room. Marth shared his room with Lucina, it was set up like a campsite with used pieces of and quills. Phoenix and Owl quickly found a sit on a random log growing out of the floor while Ike and Lucina made themselves comfortable against the wall, Marth was the only one who remained standing.

Roy waited for Marth to start, it was normal even though he too was a prince he respected Marth's insights than his own. Marth finally began with, "So that's five spies now working with us."

"Hold on." Ike straighten and repeated, "Five spies? There's only one counting that weird Shadow." Marth shook his head and said, "Five Ike, Pikachu reveled four Pichus who had been helping with the trophy attacks and spying on us. There now working for us with Pikachu's guidance, unfortunately they don't seem to know how many warriors there are now since Shadow's arrival."

Lucina glanced at Phoenix and Owl who were calculating the odds, "So far…" Phoenix started to say, "We have an okay chance if we can quickly identity who we're being attacked by." Owl nodded in agreement and added, "It seems like Ta is pulling out past villains with a lust for revenge."

"Shadow seems more like a prankster than a villain." Roy reminded them, "He seemed quiet comfortable with Toon and his friends than he did with his own comrades."

Lucina nodded in agreement and added, "Judging from Palutena's story he also seemed terrified of Mask, perhaps we can use this against him?" Ike sighed and pointed out, "But he's been banned from the Realm of shadows or something. And he doesn't seem like battle matrial."

Owl scowled and defended the poor shadow, "I wouldn't either if I had been blasted by the Queen of Angles. She's powerful!" Phoenix and Lucina nodded in agreement, they had faced her a couple times and had been severally caught off guard by how strong she seemed.

There was a soft knock on the door which Ike quickly opened, Shulk stumbled inside and nearly collapsed, "Shulk!" Lucina rushed to his side while Owl and Phoenix searched their tomes for magic, Shulk held up a hand and coughed, "I'm fine. I was just hit by a vision-,"

Roy yelped as Shulk's sword glowed a bright blue and fought the urge to run, Marth quickly grabbed Shulk and tried to say something but the light engulfed them.

"Ven! I choose you!"

Roy opened his eyes and sat up, looking around in surprise as a shadowy outline of a girl threw a Pokeball, a Venasaur landed on the battle grounds and roared before sizing up Lucario, his opponent, "We're in an another vision?" Owl mumbled, "How?"

Roy glanced around and blinked in surprise as everyone from Marth's room slowly sat up and looked around, the scene quickly changed to the park which was covered in paint and had Bowser mourning over what appeared to be statues of the Koopalings.

A second shadowy outline of a girl hovered above Bowser waiting from something as a third outline laughed and cheered, "Isn't this a wonderful painting?"

The scene changed again to three outlines fleeing to the train station from some Pokemon, Roy could easily make out Chariazard in the static haze. He watched as Chariazard abruptly halted and whispered, "Red? What are you… Doing here?" the person called Red who was a mess of shadows ignored his question and hugged the girl in the lead.

"Hey!"

Roy jumped and looked around while Shulk groaned, "Not again." The picture vanished and was replaced by digital coding, "Stop snooping!" the voice demanded, "Snooping is against the law!"

"Says the man who bugged our home." Lucina argued. The voice thought about this for a moment before grumbling, "You guys are no fun." And disappearing.

The code disappeared and were quickly replaced by the swirling colors of Marth's room, slowly setting into place and standing still, "Did… We just see the future...?" Roy asked, Shulk groaned and said, "Yes, but this one was a bit different than the one I first received."

"How so?" Owl questioned, Shulk held up the Monado and frowned, "I saw a child talking to Samus in her room. It was late in the evening though…"

Marth stood up and rubbed his head, "So we have a clue as to what's going to happen possible today or tomorrow. Wonderful." Phoenix sighed and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment, "Better start planning then."

* * *

Six'o clock, the numbers were glaring back at Samus as she fought the urge to pace around her messing room. Usually, at least one side of the room would be free from robot parts, random tee-shirts and books from the library but now it was a dump. And it was only getting worse since Shiek's disappearance into her dangerous mission, she had been gone for at least three days.

Three days was too long for Sheik's liking, and her own. Samus exhaled and fought the urge to remover her helmet, it was hard enough not to monologue her troubles to the possible bugs in her room but even harder since she could barely breath.

But the thought that the only person who knew about Sheik's whereabouts and how she was being treated made her normally perfect sized helmet feel too small was killing her. She, like Zero wasn't easy to befriend, she had lost to many people she had called comrades in too easily.

She had closed herself off to the real world only showing compassion to those who deserved it, and to those who earned it. Despite her cheerful facade to the other smashers she still feared that someone was going to get hurt because of her.

"You're really worried about her. Aren't you." Samus whirled around and pointed her gun at the slowly closing door, there was supposedly no one there but Samus knew who was really there. The moment the door closed Mask appeared putting away his creepy stone mask and greeting Samus with a small smile.

He held his hands up to show that he wasn't armed and slowly said, "I'm not here to hurt you, as the letter said. On Sheik's behalf, I've come here to inform you about her whereabouts."

"Is she safe?" Samus asked, she steadily allowed her worry fade and be replaced by a mask only space cops wore, Mask nodded and handed her letter, "She's fine. You can read the letter yourself if you don't believe me."

Samus carefully took it from him and studied it, she could easily detect Shiek's handwriting but she didn't open it until her systems confirmed that was indeed written by Sheik.

She lowered her gun and opened it, eagerly reading the letter as fast as she could. Of course she was forced to slow down once she saw Sheik's wobbly Hyrulain writing, it seemed a bit stronger and had less spelling errors than usual. But Samus could still sense the unease behind Sheik's words.

 _Dear Samus, I am surprisingly, perfectly fine. Even though I was discovered on day two and forced to change clothes. (Which aren't that bad actually) while being kept under Mask's care. It's a blessing in disguise since he's from my timeline and has been helping me restore my memory. Of course… I hope that after I tell you this you won't break your neck to rescue me but…_

 _Ta, their seemly idiot of a leader (I think it's an act) has been persuading me about switching sides, I haven't changed yet but he's offered me some good points. If I returned to Smash I may just stay a broken shadow, my heroic deeds being forever erased with only three people who understand what I did and Mask fears that I may be treated like how the Fates treated him. In an eternal loop of a never ending adventure with despair (I don't understand what he meant though…)_

 _Please. Try and act like I'm still there, if you reveled my whereabouts to early then I fear that you might be playing into Ta's trap, I also wish to fully understand what else I might have done in my timeline before returning. Love, Sheik_

Samus looked up and folded the letter, "So? Anything else you needed to share." Mask shook his head and said, "She was right, you do turn into an ice queen with strangers."

"…I have a gun."

"And I have a slingshot."

Samus frowned and questioned, "What good will a slingshot do against a gun?" Mask thought about this and put away his slingshot, "Now that I think about it, none."

"Thought so." She lowered her gun and skeptically asked, "So… How's Shiek?"

Mask thought for a minute before he openly replied, "She's doing fine. As she stated in her letter she's still on your side but Ta being Ta is pulling some strings in hopes of getting her to turn." Mask quickly added, "Don't worry, the only person she'll turn against is Zelda. She has no vendetta against anyone else but those from her timeline."

Samus nodded and allowed herself to relax, that did sound like Shiek preferring to attack those who she felt had wronged her than those around her. She just wondered if those four Links would get caught in the crossfire…

"Um, Samus." She looked up and bit her lip in surprise as Mask carefully asked, "Could you… Do me a favor?" Samus looked him over again and hesitated, yes he did ease some of Samus's worries but still. He had the marks of being under serve trauma, probably from his last adventure. And he _was_ helping the enemy.

Samus sighed and let her instincts to kick Mask out her room slid and allowed her caring personality to take over, "Sure. What's up?" Mask hesitated before he blurted, "Do you know what Sheik's favorite food is? I… never really interacted that much with Sheik during adventure so-," he stopped when Samus gasped and whispered, "No way…"

Mask yelped and hurriedly tried to correct whatever mistake he had made, "It wasn't a personal choice or anything! She was working for Gannondorf at the time and only showed up when I needed help and-,"

"You have a crush on Sheik!" Samus squealed she jumped up and down scaring Mask slightly since it was a bit unnerving to see a robot figure out his possible affection for Sheik and act giddy for him.

"And she has a crush on you!"

"What?" Mask blushed away and laughed, "Ha, good one. Probably revenge for me kicking Link's butt, right?"

"I'm serious! She practically painted you in a light of… Awesome or something! But Sheik almost never compliments someone on their skill with genuine feelings!"

"She doesn't?" Mask blushed even harder as he remembered a training excuse he had been showing Vaati, he was fairly decent but his arrogant attitude had made it hard to show the mage anything useful. Shiek had watched the entire time and gave him slight words of encouragement.

At the time they just seemed forced since he figured she was just trying to close the gap that the Fates had created. Then again, this was Sheik, who hide behind a mask for her entire life and found comfort in wearing it. It was nearly impossible for Sheik to crack a full sized smile let alone a small one!

Mask slowly snapped out of trance as Samus babbled about some romance books and how she had studied them thoroughly when she noticed certain people were hanging out more. He completely came back to earth when she said, "It's kinda of cute to see you harbor a childhood crush even if she is older than you…"

"It's not a childhood crush!" Mask snapped, he blushed even harder when he sensed Samus's smug smile and added, "And I'm not a child! It's just more tiring for me to look my true age since it requires magic!"

"Crush~." Samus sang, "Someone's got a crush~!"

"…Sheik was right. With certain information you're a danger to everyone…"

"Hey! Not true."

Mask frowned and bluntly said, "Operation Fate wreckers?" Samus blushed and looked away, "It was an experiment of love." She grumbled.

"Of course it was."

* * *

"Today's the day guys!" a sleepy Abra looked up to her cheerful trainer as she adjusted her hat and checked her bag for last minute supplies, "Abaa?"

Leaf, faced her sleepy companion and grinned, "Don't play sleepy with me Snoozy!" Snoozy frowned but dropped the sleepy act, "We're going to visit that Tournament to get Red a new Pokemon!" Leaf slipped on her shoes and looked around, she sighed when she saw Hip, her Wartortle try and hide Ember the baby Charmander in a closet.

"Hip," he jumped and spun around, trying to look innocent, "You know that Ember's coming, she deserves the chance to see Charizard after being separated for such a long time." Hip grumbled a quiet argument but pulled the sweater he had been using to hide Ember away and tossed it back into the closet.

"Char?" Ember tilted her head and whipped her fiery tail around, nearly setting her pretty pink ribbon on fire for the third time that morning. "Yup! We're going to see Charizard, Ember." She held out the Pokeballs and returned her beloved companions before leaving the sanctuary of her room.

Red of course was already in the hallway with Drawcia and Miracle, he looked uncomfortable about having to be around the minions of Ta but he looked even more uncomfortable when Leaf smiled at him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Red asked for the fiftieth time. Leaf stubbornly nodded, she had carefully left the fact that she was going to get him a new Pokémon and had pestered Red to help her set up a trip to his old Tournament.

Claiming she wanted to get some tips on how to beat the Kanto Champion. She hated it when she saw Red distressed about something and felt that it was her fault. But she wasn't sure what she had done wrong.

All she remembered was her adventure with Ven, her lovable Venosaur and her Pokémon in an attempt to beat either Red or Blue who were fighting for the title of Champion. The next thing she knew she was in a room full of machines and strange people.

Red had quickly embraced her in a hug and profusely apologized for letting her become forgotten.

"Come onnnn!" Miracle whined, "I wanna blow stuff uppp!" Red sent her a sharp look and warned, "You better not get Leaf hurt or else-,"

"Face it Red." Red paused and glared at the weird green hedgehog, Leaf was convinced that he and the purple teenager were just Pokémon, but Ta had forbid her to catch Pokémon indoors. Leaf felt slightly uncomfortable as the Hedgehog inserted in himself into the conversation.

"She's going to get hurt either way." Scourge, that was his name. Leaf frowned since it seemed fit him perfectly, and at the same time it didn't.

"No one knows her outside of the game and she barely made any Manga appearances." Scourge continued, he sent Leaf a pitying look and shook his head, "She was doomed from the start."

Leaf bristled and was about to say something when Drawcia's paintbrush made an alert chirp and pointed to the mysterious woman leaving Mask's room. Leaf glanced back at the brewing argument as Red tried to defend her and followed Drawcia as she tackled the tan woman.

Leaf couldn't help but feel jealous of the woman, she seemed calm and collected for a person who was mostly withdrawn from almost everyone but Mask. She had a feeling that she would be an excellent trainer in the heat of battle.

The woman studied Leaf with a supposed cold and suspicious look but managed to polity say, "Good Morning." Before she tried to inch away from Drawcia who was attempting to hug her idol.

"Good Morning Aldez!" Leaf chirped, "Anything interesting happen?" Aldez hesitated with how open Leaf was acting but managed to reply, "Besides throwing another book at Ta? No." she frowned disapprovingly at her bright outfit, while she hated how girly it seemed Leaf thought it was perfect.

Even that oddly placed black belt that covered her midsection was brilliantly, she could understand why Aldez hated it since it was connected to a flowing open skirt but the belt simply seemed to hide where her ninja tunic ended.

"Well. I'm off." Aldez mumbled, quickly retreating to hide in Mask's room. Drawcia slumped slightly at Aldez's sudden leave, but managed to give Leaf a cheerful blink and skipped down to the train yard.

Leaf was about to follow her when she heard Scourge snap, "Everyone forgot about her Red! You nearly did too, the best you can do is move on fix your mistake." Leaf gulped and sprinted after Drawcia, wondering if everyone really did forget about her.

But… They couldn't, right? She had foiled Team Rocket's plan many times with barely any help from Red or Blue, she had rescued a little girl from a wild Hypno and joined Red on a TV show when they tried to prove that the Kanto Trio did indeed exist.

They had only come back with a feather from Articuno but compared to most proof, it screamed the loudest. Leaf slumped slightly against the comfy train seats and looked around at the fancy decor.

She couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she truly was forgotten, only remembered by Red who had been her closet friend and neighbor since childhood. Why did everything seem so hopeless?

"Hey!" Leaf jumped as Miracle abruptly entered her line of version, being a bit too close for comfort with her empty black cat eyes, Miracle flicked Leaf's nose, "No sad thoughts!" Miracle ordered, "That's my job!"

Drawcia grumpily nodded in agreement and began painting random shapes on the wall, "Plus! It's girls night out!" Miracle reminded her, "No boys but Red allowed on this trip!"

"R-right…" Leaf mumbled, Miracle smiled and happily sat down beside her, "Best day ever!" Miracle cheered. Leaf nodded in agreement and mumbled, "Yay…"

* * *

 **And with that! I am off to watch more Assassination Classroom, nothing shall stop me! Not even laggy internet! MUAHAHAH!  
**


	9. Chapter 9, A Leaf of Peace Brings Chaos

**I don't own anything, if I did then I would have Issac in Super Smash Bros.**

* * *

Frustration. Pain. Mistrust. Revenge and Worry. Those were the auras Lucario could sense, never before had he been drowned in such negative auras. The only people who seemed to have a positive aura was Naive Kirby and surprisingly Dark Pit. Who was usually bitter and gloomy about something.

He too, felt stressed and wished to do something but he couldn't think straight, he couldn't even meditate!

Lucario sighed and wandered into the park, fresh air. That's what he needed, some fresh air with-

 _ **"It's not fair!"**_

Lucario opened his eyes and looked around, the park was… Different, vivid colors and pictures dotted the brick wall and the water flowing from the fountain was… Purple? Perhaps it was poison?

Lucario took a step forward and froze when his paw touched something slimy and cold. He looked down and shuddered when he saw that he was stepping in a puddle of red paint. Or perhaps blood?

"How come they get to paint all over the walls and I can't?!"

Who was talking? Or complaining rather, Lucario closed his eyes and focused. he quickly sensed a black aura glowing with frustration, annoyance and sadness.

It was coming from the playground.

"Interesting…" Lucario mused, he jumped into a tree and dashed over to the playground, it was covered by a canopied of trees designed to give the children shade and allow the Pokémon to relax in peace.

It also provided a good hiding spot for aura Pokemon trying to pinpoint the mysterious aura. He had seen a couple like it, or rather sensed it. They belonged to the forgotten fighters.

Was this girl, a forgotten fighter from the past? Lucario perched himself on a branch and studied the swing set, where the girl was. He couldn't make out her face, it was covered by a pink scar and a purple witch hat. Her hands were tightly gripping a rainbow colored paintbrush which was twitching slightly.

 _ **"Stupid art critics."**_ The girl muttered, _ **"They couldn't tell a Masterpiece from a child's scribble!"**_

She kicked the dirt then stood up. **_"Well jokes on you! You're now a part of my world! So there!"_** She folded her arm with glee then paused.

 _ **"Why would you think that their trophies Painty? There perfectly fine. Even though I can't… Seem to order them around, there perfectly fine!"**_

She chuckled nervously, the sound reminding Lucario of someone distorting their voice, _**"Perfectly… Fine…"**_

The girl collapsed on the swing set and resumed kicking the dirt, which was slowly turning pink. Lucario frowned slightly and stood up. Or tried to, he looked down in surprise and froze his leg was entangled in a branch.

A branch that was colored earth green and dirt brown, "Did she…?" Lucario glanced back at the girl, then focused on the paintbrush. It was brimming with life and everything it made seemed ready to jump off the wall.

Lucario looked around the woods, the brown melted off, showing ugly patches of green. It was like the woods were sick. _"I've got to warn the others."_ Lucario pulled his leg free and turned to leave-

 _ **"A Pokemon!"**_

"Er… Hello?" Lucario leaned back as the girl leaned forward, excitement glowing in her signal unnerving eye. Then again, her appearance was unnerving as well, she seemed to be made out of paint with the thought of an abstract drawing throwing in light blues, purples and slight yellows.

"I wonder what kind he is!"

Lucario frowned, wondering why the girl would ask such an odd question, if she wanted to know she could have just asked or perhaps. She wasn't meant to be heard? The girl was floating and making gestures as if she was mute. But Lucario could hear her perfectly fine.

"My name is Lucario, and you are?" Lucario said, trying to sound calm. If he wasn't then he would lose focus and he didn't need any mental distractions like fear if he had to fight this girl.

 _ **"You… You can hear me?"**_

"Err… Yes. Why does this surprise you?" Lucario leaned back some more as the girl leaned forward.

 _ **"I… I don't have a mouth, so I can't speak."**_ The girl looked away, as if ashamed of her disability, _**"The only people who can understand me is that dumb Miracle trio and Painty, my paint brush."**_

Lucario frowned and asked, "What do you mean that you have no mouth? And why did is everything covered in paint?"

The girl brightened and leaned back, allowing Lucario to breath properly.

 _ **"Do you like it? I tried using bright colors this time so no one would feel sad!"**_

"Well…" Lucario looked around and chose his words carefully, it was like he talking to child which puzzled him since the girl seemed to be a pre-teen. And most pre-teens were starting their first journeys and taking on the world with their Pokemon.

"It's certainly eye catching." Lucario said at last, the girl spun in a circle and cheered, _**"YAY! Someone finally said something positive about my art!"**_

"No one… Likes your art?" Lucario frowned and slowly sat down, the girl happily sat down beside him and kicked her feet in the air.

 _ **"Not a lot of people like it."**_ The girl admitted, her eye drooping in disgust, _**"There either art haters or don't see the point in my creation."**_

"Surely someone likes your art. Just because your style's different doesn't mean it's outrageous." Lucario frowned, then added, "Then again, I don't know much about art."

 ** _"No one does. That's the beauty and the curse of art. Having to deal with so few people who can connect with your art."_** The girl looked up, a blank look on her face. **_"But it won't matter soon… Soon the world shall be a blank, forgotten painting. Just like me."_**

"…Excuse me?" Lucario frowned at the sudden change in the girl's demeanor, it went from cheerful yet upset to morbid and depressing. He flinched slightly as she focused on him, head tilted slightly.

 _ **"That's what I am. A forgotten painting named Drawcia. I have no mouth. I cannot complain nor can I cry."**_

"I… Don't understand." Lucario pointed to Drawcia and questioned, "How can you be a painting?"

 ** _"Like this."_**

Drawcia picked up her paintbrush and painted a blank picture in the sky, then she leaped forward. Lucario paled and tried to catch the girl but paused as she merged with the painting, then turned around waving hello.

"H-how?" Lucario stammered.

Drawcia jumped back onto the tree and started painting a picture of soccer ball.

 _ **"I was born from a painting. And was given the power to turn my art into reality with the help of Painty."**_ She glared at her paintbrush and roughly shook it, **_"Even if he did abandon me to help an art hater."_**

"So the person who painted you didn't give you a mouth?"

 ** _"No, which is why it's surprising that you can hear me. Can you read minds?"_**

"Only auras. That's how I found you so quickly."

 ** _"Wow… Can you sense anything else?"_**

"No, only what people are feeling and my own aura."

 ** _"Oh… That must be lame."_**

"Right now it's giving me a headache."

 ** _"It is? Do you want my daddy to give you some medicine?"_**

"You have a father?"

 ** _"Not exactly, he just acts like a father. He tried to paint me a mouth... He couldn't since he can barely draw a triangle."_**

Lucario winched and defended the man, "It's the thought that counts."

 _ **"Yea… I just wish that the act of kindness that brought me back didn't bring back those monsters."**_

"What monsters?"

"She means me!"

Lucario jumped and entered his fighting stance as a demon like woman floated above them.

 ** _"Nooo! Go away Miracllleeee."_**

Miracle snickered and flicked Drawcia's witch hat, "Aww! You don't need to sound that upset about me coming back!"

 ** _"Yes I do."_**

"No, you don't" Miracle teased.

 _ **"YES. I. DO."**_

"Aww! You're mad at me!" Miracle giggled and spun around in a circle, "I made the wittle artist mad!"

 ** _"Gooo awwwwaaay!"_**

"Neevvver!" Miracle chirped.

"What is going on?" Lucario asked. Miracle and Drawcia ignored him and continued to bicker with each other. It would have been kinda of cute if Miracle didn't remind him of an evil spirit. Lucario was about to inch away when Miracle grabbed him by the wrist, startling him into countering.

Miracle yelped then laughed, unfazed by the attack.

 _ **"You can't harm her without the proper elements."**_ Drawcia grumbled. _**"You have to fight fire with fire."**_

"That just sounds confusing." Lucario mumbled. Miracle stuck her tongue and resumed annoying Drawcia, "You're in trouble! You turned 9 people into trophies!"

 _ **"Well it's not my fault that they have poor art taste!"**_ Drawcia glanced at Lucario and cringed at the stern glare he was giving her. _**"I didn't mean too! I was just going to trap them in a painting for a little bit! I wasn't purposely trying to turn them into trophies!"**_

"She's lying." Miracle argued, her voice still cheerful.

 ** _"Am not! I promised Leaf that I wouldn't get her in trouble!"_**

"Leaf? There are three of you here?" Lucario questioned. Drawcia nodded and painted a smiley face.

 _ **"Yea! We're here to surprise her friend Red by finding him a new Pokemon!"**_ She rubbed her arm and studied her boots. _ **"I wouldn't' purposely turn people into trophies! Sculptures are lame plus Leaf is cool! Super cool!"**_

"Oh?" Lucario relaxed slightly, her childish innocent slowly winning him over. He had slight experience with kids since he watched Kirby from time to time. And judging by how Drawcia was hopping up and down and waving her arms it was clear that Leaf was her role-model.

 ** _"Yea! She's not as cool as Adlez Keihs! She's ninja cool!"_**

"Adle- Aledz," Lucario frowned, the name seemed backward and unfamiliar to him.

 ** _"Don't worry, her name's hard to pronounce. Mask and Ta are the only people who can say it properly."_**

"And that's only because Mask and Keihs are in icky love." Miracle sang, Drawcia whacked her with Painty who Lucario figured was the paintbrush and angrily scolded her. _ **"No way! Adlez's too cool to fall in love!"**_

"Says you."

 _ **"Nun-uh!"**_

"Huh-uh."

 ** _"Liar!"_**

"Why thank you."

Drawcia growled slightly and turned to Lucario, who was attempting to figure out why Adlez's name sounded familiar.

 _ **"What do you think Lucario? Do cool people fall in love?"**_

"Love is a tricky subject Drawcia." Lucario admitted, "It's hard to say if 'cool' people fall in love or not."

 _ **"I bet they don't."**_

"Bleeeh. I'm bored." Miracle huffed, she glanced down at the forest ground grinned, "Oh! Victims!"

 ** _"Who is it?"_**

Miracle grinned and rubbed her hands together, "Kirby and the puppet!"

 _ **"Kirby?"**_

Lucario tensed at the sudden venom in Drawcia's voice. Drawcia gripped her brush tightly which jolted forward, seemingly attempting to reach Kirby.

 ** _"Don't even think about it Painty, you've back-stabbed me enough as it is."_**

Drawcia snarled, Lucario frowned and tried to grab Drawcia's arm, trying to stop her, "Drawcia wait!" too late, Drawcia jumped in the painting and disappeared, Miracle laughed and spun around, "Ahh! I love the smell of revenge so early in the morning!"

"Revenge? What are you talking about?!" Lucario demanded. Miracle unnerved him, her aura seemed purposely dark, despite her cheerful attuide and childish quarks she seemed to breath evil.

"Kirby being Kirby, the annoying pink ball hero." Miracle said, icy hatred slipping into her voice, "Went off to destroy Drawcia's pretty little art world."

Lucario paled, Kirby was the art hater? It didn't make sense, Kirby wouldn't attack anyone unless they provoked him, and even then it took a lot to rile Kirby up. Unless Drawcia had used Kirby's world as an easel and unwittingly painted herself as the villain.

Her bitterness of being forgotten acting as a spark as she forcibly shifted the world to her point of view.

"Well, why you have your little panic attack, I'm off to find a new puppet!" Miracle chirped, she grinned as Lucario growled at her, "Tee-hee! You aren't the only one who can sense how people feel!" she flew down to the ground where Drawcia was mentally chewing Kirby out.

"Shoot." Lucario growled, he was more or less trapped, if he helped Drawcia out King Dedede would label him as traitor, he was quick to jump to conclusions and it wouldn't take much to pin Lucario.

But if he helped Kirby he would possibly anger Drawcia and make her feel betrayed once more. Lucario watched the battle slowly unfoil and punched the tree in anger. This Ta person was hitting every moral right a fighter had!

"Leaf…" Lucario closed his eyes in a desperate search to find Leaf, she sounded like a Pokémon trainer, and the best place to find new Pokemon was in the woods.

"Hang tight Kirby…" Lucario muttered, "I'm getting help."

* * *

"You know, it's a nice day for a walk." Pit acknowledged. Dark Pit snorted and muttered, "Even better day for flying."

Red looked up at the sky, "I dunno. Is the sky supposed to be blood red?"

"Hmm?" Olimar looked up and frowned, "Unless you humans have a red moon nearby. Then no." Megaman frowned and checked his blaster, "I sense trouble."

Red glanced at Shadow who had been dragged along for some fresh air, Shadow caught his eye and stretched, "Don't worry, I know who's behind it, as long as no one insulates the art you're fine."

"Art?" Dark Pit looked around and scoffed, "You mean the weird colors wasn't because of the Forgotten drama?"

Pit and Olimar winched while Shadow rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Just be careful. Drawcy doesn't take criticism to well."

"POYO!"

Red looked up and yelped as Kirby flew overhead, "Kirby! Are you alright?"

Megaman turned around to help him up just as a hammer slammed downward, "Megaman!" Pit yelped.

"Move idiot!" Shadow snapped, yanking Red back as the hammer swung sideways, "Whose attacking?" Pit demanded, Dark Pit jump back and growled, "It looks like-,"

"De-de-de!" Kirby answered.

"What?!" Pit gripped his blades and watched as the purple smoke cleared, revealing King Dedede himself, giving them a sneer. "That aura…" Pit mumbled. Olimar frowned and nodded in agreement, "It looks like the same aura that created nega smashers."

"Nega-smashers?" Red asked he pulled out his sword and winched, "What are those?"

"Trophy version of fighters, only they crave destruction and have no bounds." Pit answered. Dark Pit pulled out his bow n arrow and aimed, "So show no mercy?"

"Oohhh! I wouldn't do that if I were you~" Pit looked up and yelled, "Demon!" as a woman in all white floated into view, she giggled and turned in a circle, "You see, King Dedede is being controlled."

"By Dark Matter." Shadow finished with a bored yawn, "I thought that trump card belonged to your masters Miracle." Miracle giggled and floated beside King Dedede who spun his hammer in the air, "True~ But I've been given special permission to summon Dark Matter if we met up with an annoying puffball."

"We?" Pit questioned while Shadow waved hello, "Hi Drawcia!"

A witch joined Miracle glaring ferociously at Kirby who was preparing for battle, "So are you the art freak who messed up the park?" Dark Pit asked. Drawcia blinked then looked around.

"Ignore him Drawcy, he can't see good art when it punches him in the face!" Shadow said, Red hurriedly nodded in agreement not liking how Drawcia was looking at them.

She pointed to Shadow then at Pit who braced himself, "Hm? Why I'm hanging out the lousy angle that trapped me here?" Shadow asked.

Drawcia nodded and painted a picture of a demon looking Palautana, "Red forced me to go for a walk." Shadow pointed at Red who waved hello, Drawcia studied him for a bit before she floated over and smacked him with her brush.

"Ow!" Red rubbed his hair and whimpered, "What was that for?" Drawcia pointed to his hair which was now a bright cheery red, then beamed an invisible smile at him, "Um… Thanks? Although I'm not sure why my hair is red…"

"She wants you to match with your clothes." Shadow explained. Drawcia nodded in agreement while Miracle rolled her eyes, "Well, why you play painter, I'll be cleaning up the trash." An unnerving smile curled onto her lips and she pointed to Kirby, "Attack my minion! Attack!"

"Incoming!" Pit yelped, Dedede charged forward swinging his hammer wildly, forcing the group to scatter. "What are we going to do?!" Pit demanded as Olimar tripped and was sent flying into the purple fountain.

"Fight!" Dark Pit snapped, he flew high into the air and slammed the blunt end of his blade into Dedede, sending him stumbling, Kirby nodded in agreement and pulled out his own hammer.

"He's already got Megaman and Olimar!" Dark Pit yelled, he ducked and smacked Dedede hard with his wing, "We can't let anyone else get hurt!"

"I know but-," Pit started to say when Dark Pit sent him a look. "A-alright." Pit mumbled he glanced at Miracle who waved hello.

"Don't bother." Shadow warned, "You can't hurt her unless you use the same attacks she uses."

"Which is currently, Earth!" She waved her hand and boulders appeared from the sky, "Move!" Pit ordered.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Dark Pit snapped, Pit frowned and dodged a boulder, lately Dark Pit had become much more… Bitter toward him, and he wasn't sure why.

He had tried to pry a few answers from him with the help of Pikachu and Ike, the only people Dark Pit talked to but they couldn't get anything out of him.

"Watch out!"

Pit blinked then pulled his shields up as King Dedede attacked him, he bit back a scream of pain as the shields broke under his hammer.

"Im…Possible!" Pit gasped, "No one's ever broken down my shields!"

"Well, he just did." Miracle said, she glanced at Drawcia who was painting and army of Waddle Doos while forcing Kirby back, using her paintbrush as a tennis racket, "Don't hog all the fun Drawcia! I wanna play too!"

Drawcia glared at her and slammed Kirby into the ground. "Hang on Kirby!" Red tried to distract Drawcia but only managed in getting his foot stuck in a glob of paint.

"Knock it off you monster!" Dark Pit snarled, Drawcia frowned then pointed to Miracle who huffed in playful annoyance, Dark Pit sighed and pointed to Drawcia "I mean you idiot!"

Drawcia blinked a hurt look crossing her face for a brief second before it was quickly replaced by anger, she angrily pointed at Dark Pit and summoned the hoard of monsters.

"Pitto!" Pit yelped.

"Don't call me that!" Dark Pit flew out of the monsters' reach while Kirby obtained the beam power, which he quickly used to subdue King Dedede.

"Aww… You broke my puppet!" Miracle whined, "No fair!"

"You're next!" Pit gasped, shakily getting to his feet he whipped out his blades and readied himself, Miracle smiled and shook her head, "Ah, the creatures of heaven itself doesn't understand how pointless it is." She closed her eyes and smiled, "I pity you winged monsters."

"Gaia!"

"Hmm?" Miracle opened her eyes and yelled as something hit her, she crumpled slightly and before she resumed her cheerful stance. "Lucky shot bird-," she froze when she found herself up against four heroes, one with golden hair, one with long silky blue hair, one with vivid green and another with fiery red hair.

Harden looks of warriors on their faces.

"You did that?" Miracle asked, they didn't say anything but continued their attack. Miracle looked up as switched into beam mode, which was a bad idea as a beam of fire hit her.

"H-hey!" Miracle yelped, she switched into ice and screamed in pain as a horse like creature summoned a hoard of ice and hurled it at her.

"N-not cool!" Miracle wheezed, she tried to move but found that she couldn't, "Drawcia! Help!" Drawcia was gone, she was still in the park and but could only make out the landscape.

"Alright, fine." Miracle stood to her full height and stood on wobbly legs, a crazed grin on her face, "I was hoping to destroy Kirby, not a bunch of nobodies!"

She held her arms out and blasted the heroes with squares of ice, they crumpled slightly but stood tall, and related with goofy looking creatures. The boy with the blue hair summoned a glacier of ice. Forcing Miracle to take damage and switch attacks.

"I see, you're all magic users!" she switched into spikes and summoned a Dark Matter, "Go! Take over the blue weirdo!" it obeyed and possessed the boy with silky blue hair, called Amiti. He joined her side and summoned a glacier of ice on his friends.

They flinched slightly taking major damage but still managed to stay tall, "Ha!" Miracle boasted, "You wouldn't kill your own comrade. Now would you?"

The boy with golden hair said nothing and summoned a monstrous knight, he looked like a real demon and was at least 50ft tall. Miracle laughed as the laser phased right past her.

"Fools! You can't hurt-,"

There was a muffled scream of pain and Miracle looked to her left just in time to see her puppet crumble. Returning back to their side. Dead.

"N-no way…." Miracle gasped, the living team minus the boy with golden hair attacked with blades forcing Miracle to switch over to fire.

She watched as one of the team mates brought Amiti to life on their next turn and killed off the girl, Karis who crumpled and returned to their side.

"…What is going on?" Miracle whispered, it had only been a couple minutes and she had barely destroyed anyone! The closer she got, the more they seemed to cling to life, killing their own teammates and reviving them if Miracle managed to get a hold of them.

Sometimes they would bring someone else in, taking the possessed team members place and summoning more powerful creatures to attack.

Miracle stumbled and collapsed, "Masters… I have… Failed you." She gasped as white hot pain overtook her body.

"Wha-what just happened?!" Pit demanded, one moment Miracle was looking smug, then four weirdos showed up and destroyed her, she seemed to be hanging on a thread of life. The boy with golden hair glanced briefly at the survivors, then nodded hello before he and his party disappeared.

"Hey wait!" Dark Pit started to say, but they were already gone. "I wonder if they were with that Neku guy." Shadow mused.

Drawcia shrugged then resumed painting, she could care less about Miracle getting beat up since she found her to be annoying. And a control freak. Or was that Zero?

"Is everyone all right?!"

Pit looked into the woods and braced himself as a girl, around the age 15 stumbled out, heavily panting, "Sorry…" She wheezed, "Got… Lost…"

"Who are you?!" Dark Pit demanded, the girl looked up from under her white hat grinned, "I'm… Leaf, from Pallet Town." She stood up and stretched, surveying the damage, "They didn't hurt you guys too badly, right?"

"We're fine. But Megaman and Olimar got destroyed." Shadow bluntly said. Leaf frowned and looked at Drawcia who sheepishly looked away, "You guys beat up Mr. Olimar?"

Drawcia shook her head no and pointed to the collapsed King Dedede, then at Miracle who was struggling to sit up, Leaf sighed and adjusted her hat, "I've also heard that you beat up the Kooplaings Drawcy."

Drawcia angrily looked away and grunted, "Just because people have a different opinion on art doesn't mean you have to freak out."

Drawcia folded her arms and looked away, shooting glares at Dark Pit who happily returned them, Leaf noticed this and quickly intervened, "By the way, I don't think I got you name."

"He's Dark Pit." Pit supplied, Leaf studied him for a bit before grinning, "Oh! You must be Pit then! I've heard so much about you two!"

"You have?" Dark Pit and Pit looked at Leaf who nodded, "Well, Mostly Dark Pit and his older sister Dark Zelda!" Dark Pit frowned and looked to Pit who laughed and rubbed his arm, "Err. That was more or less me. The humans playing our game just made up Dark Pit at the time."

"Really?" Leaf frowned and pointed to Pit, "So you enjoy beating people up?"

"What? No!"

"Odd. That's what Red painted you as."

Red frowned and pointed to himself, "Do you mean me?" Shadow frowned as well and scratched his head, "No. I mean my friend, Red." Leaf pointed to Pit and said, "You've met him before. He was in something called Brawl."

"I'm sorry. But I don't remember anyone called Red, nickname or otherwise."

"Really…?" Leaf glanced at Drawcia who was painting a picture of a Pokeball she looked up and pointed to it. "Oh right!" Leaf grinned and looked them, "You guys wouldn't happen to know where to catch Wild Pokémon. Would you?" she adjusted her hat and sheepishly smiled, "I've only bumped into one Pokémon this entire time. And he didn't seem catch…"

"Why would you want to catch a Pokemon?" Red asked, "There already caught." Leaf frowned and looked at Drawcia who was waving her arms trying to tell her something, Leaf temporally ignored her and answered the question, "My friend lost his most powerful Pokemon, so I'm trying to catch him a replacement to cheer him up!"

"A powerful Pokémon?" Dark Pit questioned, "What's its name?"

"Charizard." Leaf answered she frowned slightly and rubbed her arm, "Come to think of it… I think he might be here."

"Bleeh!" Miracle sat up and made shooing motions with her hand, "Who cares! Let's ditch the boys and find Pokémon!" Drawcia nodded in agreement and shot Dark Pit a death glare before they headed back into the forest.

"All in favor of telling Charizard?" Pit asked once the girls were out of sight. Shadow rolled his eyes and teased, "But if we tell the big bad dragon then he'll get upset!"

"Maybe Charizard will know who this other Red is." Red mused, "And maybe he knows Leaf as well!"

* * *

"Excuse me." Mewtwo sighed and looked up, Lucario was slightly surprised the Mewtwo didn't throw him out the library completely but deiced not to stand there like an idiot, "Do you know where Charizard is?"

Mewtwo put his book down and glanced at Pikachu who was reading a book to the Pichus, "No Mewtwo, we have not seen Charizard." Pikachu answered, not bothering to look up from his reading. "Oh! Did you find Greninja yet?" Sky asked, Mewtwo and Lucario frowned at the Pichu who squeaked and hide behind Pikachu, "It wasn't us! It was 3 Rehtom!"

"3…Rehtom?" Lucario frowned and muttered, "Now that's two word puzzles to sort out." Mewtwo rolled his eyes and picked up his book, "Why do you want to find out where the fire lizard is anyway?"

"I think he might know someone called, Red." Lucario said.

"Might!?" Pikachu nearly dropped the book and looked at Lucario in disbelief, "Lucario, Red was Charizard's trainer! Remember?" Lucario frowned and thought back to his Brawl days, it was hazy and current matters kept interrupting his train of thought.

"He was the Pokémon Trainer." Pikachu explained, "But his real name was Red. He's the Champion of the Kanto Region, along with Johto and possible Hoenn."

"Well, that explains why I don't remember him." Lucario sighed. The Pokémon Trainer battled, but not very much. He appeared every now and then for fights but Lucario mostly remembered the Pokémon he used to fight with, since they were usually the ones fighting.

"Anyway. His friend, Leaf is here. Trying to find a new Pokémon for him." Lucario explained, Mewtwo raised an eyebrow and resumed his reading muttering, "She isn't catching me."

"We know Mew!" Pichu chirped, he grinned as Mewtwo sent him a death glare, "Right… I'm just worried that Charizard might take his anger out on her if she bumps into him." Lucario said. Pikachu frowned and asked, "Do you think that's why Charizard's been so grumpy lately?"

"Possibly." Lucario glanced out the window, "She's currently in the forest with some… Friends which she seems to have under control."

"Their villains." Mewtwo guessed.

"Yes. Wanting revenge against Kirby."

"Wonderful." Mewtwo muttered. Lucario sighed and went to leave when Adventure and Pirate tackled him, "Pleasepleasepleaseplease!" they begged, "Don't hurt Red's best friend!" Lucario stopped in surprise and looked at them. "May I have a reason why?" Sky joined his comrades and gave him a pitiful look, "Because! She's… Forgotten. Like really, really forgotten." Sky explained, "Red used to have nightmares whenever Ta tried to sway him to join by offering to bring Leaf back."

Pichu nodded in agreement and whispered, "She barely got into the manga and was shoehorned in to appease girl Pokémon trainers."

Lucario frowned and studied their aura, this was probably the first time they actually showed something besides snarkniess, happiness and anger. Lucario sighed and patted their heads, "I'll try and be careful around her."

Of course that was easier said than done since the moment he stepped into the cafeteria, there was Leaf wandering around and studying posters. Right now, it was empty but for how long?

"Um Leaf." Leaf looked up and smiled at Lucario, "Is something wrong? You seem nervous." Lucario looked around before he grabbed her arm, "Leaf, you need to leave."

"Wha- why?"

Lucario hesitated unsure how to explain what was going on but tried anyway, "This Ta person, in our eyes he's a villain. Attacking and turning people into trophies." Leaf tensed and carefully asked, "Why is he doing that?"

"We don't know. All we know is that he's using Forgotten characters from other games. And you might fall into that category."

"Of… Being a forgotten?" Leaf questioned, "Why would people think that I'm a forgotten?" Lucario hesitated once more and tried to explain in greater detail but the hiss of a sword stopped him. He turned around, and bit back a groan. Standing in the hallway were two hotheads. Ike and Charizard, their eyes were narrow with suspicion.

"Ike." Lucario tried, careful to keep his voice even, "Let me explain." he took a step forward, hands out he quickly stopped when Ike pointed his sword at Lucario's throat, "Why are you hanging out with one of Ta's men?" Ike demanded, his voice quiet with anger.

"Men?" Leaf frowned and folded her arms. Lucario sent her a look to be quiet before he focused on Ike, "I don't think she's working directly with Ta Ike. She's just running an error for an old smasher." Lucario explained, he glanced at Charizard who was studying Leaf.

"You mean a forgotten?" Ike questioned, Lucario nodded and Leaf said, "His name's Red, he used to be in something called Brawl. He's my best friend."

"Never heard of him." Ike glanced at Charizard who growled and took a step forward, Lucario winched at the fire radiating off his scaly body, "I don't remember anyone named Leaf being buddy-buddy with my trainer."

Leaf frowned but managed a shaky laugh, "Really? I think you remember the time we tried to give you a bath." She stopped laughing when Charizard took another step forward, "Oh my god…" Leaf realized, a pained look crossing her face, "You don't remember me." She fumbled with her Pokeballs and was about to throw one when Ike pointed to her and snapped, "See! She's about to attack!"

"What?! I was about to get Ember in hopes of jogging Charizard's memory!" Leaf argued.

"Ike what's going on?" Lucario flinched as Zero joined them, great. Two hotheads and a bitter space huntress, Ike pointed to Leaf and Lucario and snarled, "Lucario's working with a Forgotten."

"And I'll happily explain why if you would just shut up." Lucario retorted, Leaf lowered her Pokeball and glanced at a random painting. Lucario followed her gaze and stiffened when he spotted Drawcia's unnerving yellow eye and Miracle's red and black eyes looking back.

At least Leaf had an escape route if things got ugly, "What's going on?" Sky wandered into the cafeteria and studied the scene he frowned and said, "I know what's going on…"

"You do?" Charizard asked.

"Yes!" Sky pointed to Charizard's group and yelled, "You're trying to hog the breakfast cookies!"

"Wait, there breakfast cookies?!" Pirate joined Sky and glowered at Charizard, "Don't hog them ya pig!"

"I wasn't stealing cookies!" Charizard argued, "We're busy dealing with traitors!" Sky and Pirate looked at Lucario and Leaf and frowned, "Liar! They wouldn't steal the breakfast cookies!"

"Says the Pirate." Lucario countered. Pirate gasped and clutched his beloved bandana, "I don't steal me cookies!" Zero sighed and stepped forward, stun gun ready. Leaf paled at the weapon and took a step back, "You're coming with us." Zero ordered.

"Zero, wait." Lucario started to say when the tip of Ike's sword cut him off, "I say we get rid of them before they do any more harm." Ike growled, "Harm? I was just trying to find my friend a Pokémon!" Leaf argued. She pointed to Charizard who flinched slightly, "I wouldn't be here if someone didn't deice to go abandoning his friends for glory rights!"

"I didn't leave them!" Charizard snapped, although Lucario could sense a hint of doubt in his voice, "Here's an idea. How about we calm down and-,"

"Settle this in a battle!" A girl said, Leaf turned around and gasped, "Y-you look just like me!" Lucario turned around as well and blinked in surprise, standing under the stage selection screen was a girl who looked exactly like Leaf.

The only difference between the two were skin color and outfit choice. The girl wore a green tank top and had light brown skin. She pulled out a Pokeball and pointed to Leaf, "I challenge you to a battle Leaf!"

"This isn't the time for a silly Pokémon battle!" Ike snapped, the girl flinched slightly but stood her ground, "It is when the Champion of Kanto challenges you!"

"Champion?" Leaf questioned she stepped forward and bounced the ball in her hand before catching it, "Well then, I guess I can't refuse this challenge!"

The girl grinned and pointed to the screen which had the Pokémon Stadium stage picked and ready to go, "Let's go Slowpoke!" Lucario watched as the two girls took off and entered the stage, he glanced at Charizard then back at the screen. This… Was an interesting day today.

*****  
 **Champion Jade challenged you to a battle!**

Leaf opened her eyes, and relaxed. Now wasn't the time to worry about being forgotten. Or that she was in major trouble with two angry people.

Now. Was the time to think, and battle. While Blue and Red might have spent their journey racing to be Champion, Leaf spent her time making friends with her partners, exploring and enjoying the freedom she suddenly had.

She didn't challenge the Elite Four despite her eight badges since she wanted to plan a course of attack. Prepare herself and her team for whatever came at her. She never dreamed of being challenged herself.

But now. Now was the time to fight, "Ven! I choose you!" Leaf threw her first Pokemon, her first partner and Pokemon friend. Ven the Venasaur.

The crowd went crazy as Ven shook himself and glared at the girl opposing them, Jade simply grinned and chose a Pokeball, "Cool! Venasuar rules!" she threw the Pokeball yelling, "But now! It's Iceball's turn to shine!"

Leaf gasped as Articuno landed and spread her majestic blue wings, "No way…" Leaf whispered, she and Red had spent hours trying to prove Articuno's existent and here it was. Standing in front of her, preparing to attack.

"Iceball use Icebeam!"

Shoot. Jade had predicted her first Pokémon perfectly, "Ven! Use Poison Powder!"

Luckily Ven was faster than Iceball and managed to poison the icy bird. Of course, that Ice beam did a ton of damage to Ven, "Shoot." Leaf gritted her teeth and pulled Ven back. He did have Mega drain but she wasn't going to risk the odds of Iceball getting another critical hit.

"Ember! You're up!"

Jade frowned slightly at the name and glanced at Iceball. Leaf grinned, she preferred brain over brawn. And Ember had a clear type advance over the Ice type.

"Ember use Flame Wheel!"

"You can't touch me, you can't touch me, cuz I'm going to fly in the sky!" Jade yelled, Iceball flew into the sky, forcing Ember's attack to miss. "Head underground Ember!"

"Use Fly again!"

 _"So that's how you're going to play?"_ Leaf thought, by using Fly continues the two would miss each other. Meaning it was a waste of time, the only good thing was that Iceball was poisoned slowly doing damage over time.

"Iceball return!" Jade switched Pokemon and grinned, causing Leaf to bristle. It was clearly going to be a water type that was the reasonable opinion.

"Go! Lapris!"

A Lapris? Leaf had a chance then, she could easily use Fire Spin, "Use Fire Spin Ember!" Leaf grinned then frowned as Lapris barely held on, "Confuse Ray!"

"Watch out Ember!" Ember blinked then looked at Leaf, confused. Leaf pointed up ahead just as the ghostly ray of light hit her, "Chaar?" Ember shook her head but stayed confused.

"Ember use Flamethrower!"

"Surf!"

Ember attacked herself and Leaf could only watch as the ocean wave engulfed her poor Charmander, "Ember return!" alright, then, Leaf adjusted her hat and studied Jade. Was she a water/ice type trainer? No. She would need a variety if she beat the Elite four.

"Hip! You're up!"

"Perish song!"

 _"Great. She's forcing me to switch out!"_ Leaf bit her lip, _"Hip mostly has water type moves, and against Lapris that isn't going to go far."_

"Hip use cut!" minimal damage, not very effective…

"Use Confuse ray!"

"Hip try Cut one more time!" Of course, Hip hit himself than the Lapris. One turn left… Leaf bit her lip, "Hip returned! Snoozy you're your up!"

"Espeon it's time to shine!"

Espeon!? How did she a Espeon?! Leaf watched as a Jolteon appeared instead. What was this girl's plan? She already knocked out Ember, had Ven on the ropes and then switched over to an Electric type! Leaf glanced at her Pokeballs, she only brought five with her since she wasn't sure how Ta's PC worked with Pokemon, plus she wasn't expecting such an important battle to pop up. It would be mere luck if she won since most of her Pokemon were around level 25-30.

She really wished that she brought Lullaby, she could put them to sleep then use double slap until it was over.

"Snoozy use Physic!"

"Thunderbolt!"

They both winched as the attacks did devastating damage, luckily for Snoozy, she had Rest which she promptly did after shaking off the static. "Snoozy you could have waited for me." Leaf grumbled.

"Is she Hasty as well?" Jade asked, she grinned and tossed a Pokeball in the air, "Funny how the hardest Pokemon ever are hasty."

"Yea… I guess." Leaf frowned, this was the first time someone tried to hold a conversation with her in battle, was she trying to throw her off?

"Bite!"

Snoozy flinched in her sleep and drowsily opened her eyes, she glared at Espeon who was preparing another attack. "Confusion!"

"Thunderbolt!"

Leaf watched Espeon's speed over take Snoozy's Koing it in a single attack. Despite restoring her HP with rest the thunderbolt bolt coupled with Bite destroyed her poor Abra.

"Alright then, Sanster!" it was her last trump card, Jade winched as Sandshrew appeared, a trupment glint in his eye.

"Bite Espeon!" luckily, it didn't do too much damage thanks to Sanster's thick hide, "Use Earthquake!"

"No! Don't use Earthquake!" Jade yelped, of course Sanster ignored Jade's cries and quickly took care of Espeon.

"Go! Pinkgirlgirl!"

A Dragonair appeared and calmly survived the scene, "Sunny day!"

Leaf frowned, why would she use Sunny day? It seemed odd for the girl who seemed more offensive than Defense to suddenly use a stat boost.

"Earthquake Sanster!"

Jade winched as Pink fainted but kept her cocky smile "Now! It is time for the god of Pokemon to appear!"

"What?"

"RED! I choose you!"

Leaf blinked as a Venasaur joined the battle, "Sanster Earthquake!" Sadly it didn't instance Ko RED as she hoped, "Solarbeam!" oh. That's why she used Sunny day. She planned for Red to tank through, probably using a healing attack until all of Leaf's Pokemon fainted.

She winched as Sanster fainted, not standing a chance against the powerful attack, "Come on Ven! Let's win this thing!"

"Solar beam!" Ven tanked the attack and retailed with Mega drain, "Solar beam one more time!" Ven barely managed to hang on. Leaf glanced at her remaining Pokémon, all she had left was Hip and Ven.

She had lost the moment Jade had placed Iceball onto the field. She had only managed to take down Espeon and Pink.

"Solar beam!"

Ven fainted, leaving her just with Hip. The only good thing was that Sunny day faded, forcing RED to spend an extra turn charging, Leaf sighed but managed a shaky smile. She probably could have turned the battle in her favor if she hadn't been so distracted by what happened earlier.

Oh well. Leaf could lose a thousand times and still not feel defeated. After all, now she had an inkling of Jade's battle strategy. "Hip use Rock Smash!"

It barely did anything, against RED sending its HP into the red zone was a bonus but the final Solar Beam ended the battle. Leaf smiled and adjusted her hat, "Oh well, you lose some battles and end up winning others."

Jade thought about this before she laughed and said, "I'd rather win all the battles."

"Of course you would."

"Also, ignore the haters!"

"…What?" Leaf frowned and put away the Pokeball in her hand, "You aren't a forgotten character to me!" Jade said, she grinned and adjusted her own hat, "After all! I played your character even since I was six! And I'm still playing today!"

"You are?" Leaf didn't know why but she felt a warm bubble of hope appear, "Heck yea! You made history! Being the first ever female trainer in Kanto started other girls being Pokémon trainers in other regions!" Jade gave her a thumbs up, "Now let's make like a leaf and leave!"

"Why is my name a pun?"

"…You heard nothing."

Leaf laughed and followed the girl outside, she froze when she noticed how many fighters were in the cafeteria. Lucario sent her an apologetic look as Marth looked her over carefully.

"Who are you two?" Marth finally asked. Jade smiled and stretched, "Let's just say that I'm a friend of Neku's."

"You mean carrot top!?" Leaf snickered as Shadow frowned and pointed at Jade, "He's evil!"

"Right, so you're helping Neku Ms….?" Zelda trailed off and waited for Jade to fill in the blank, "I! Am CAPTAIN ALPH!" Jade put her hands on her hips and adjusted her voice so it sounded high pitched and squeaky, "The defender of outer space!"

"…What?" Ike frowned and lifted his sword off the ground, "Stop fooling around and start talking!"

"Never! I am the unbeatable Captain Alph! And you are Sir grumpy pants!"

Leaf giggled and looked around, Drawcia was still in the painting, waving her arms and pointing to the color red. Was it time to leave? Already?

"Am I allowed to talk now?" Lucario asked, Mario and Ike shot him a glare which forced him to be quiet.

"Follow me please." Marth said, Leaf glanced at Jade, wondering why she didn't tell them her real name but didn't voice her question. She followed Marth and felt nervous, she had faced Team Rocket, defeated their leader at least three times and defeated an angry spirit and a Hypno.

But this. This made all of her victories seem tiny and unimportant. The angry and surprised looks stung and the looks from the Council didn't help either along with that hopeless thought she had been nursing the entire train trip here

"Alright." Link survived them and sighed, "What's going on here?" Leaf wanted to know as well, she studied the room, sensing the charged atmosphere. It reminded her of Lavender Tower. That mournful Marowak who had her life and child ripped away from her.

Almost everyone had lost something, and almost everyone wanted to blame it on her.

"I would like to know that too." Leaf finally said, Marth and Link exchanged looks of surprise but said nothing. Samus glanced at Mario then at Pikachu who was giving Leaf a pity look.

"I came here, with friends who did indeed attack and turn people into trophies." Leaf glared at a painting and Drawcia withered into the background and studied her paintbrush, ashamed. "It was originally to find a Pokemon for Red, my friend. I never planned to start a brawl with anyone." Leaf glanced around the room then focused on Samus who seemed to be the only one thinking clearly, "Yes, I am a forgotten. To everyone apparently. But I'm not working with Ta."

"Really?" Mario gave her a glare full of fire which Leaf stubbornly returned with a calm glare back, the perks of having a grass type trainer that she learned to smell the flowers. And because Ven would magically appear out of his Pokeball and refuse to return until Leaf took a break and enjoy the nature around her.

"Yes, really." Leaf replied, "Lucario was asked on my behalf to look out for me. Something you would have known if you talked to him instead of pointing fingers."

"Who's Red?" Marth questioned.

"He's a brawler from Brawl." Leaf replied irritation edging into her voice, "Which apparently no one knows but me."

"There were no brawlers in Brawl besides Snake." Mario argued, "There were barely any fist fighters!"

"OBJECTION!" Leaf jumped half a foot in the air as Jade jumped up, striking a pose, "It's clear that Leaf meant a past fighter! Not the brawler Mii class!" Jade argued, Mario stood up as well, prepared to argue back when Jade cut him off pointing to Leaf, "It's also clear that Leaf means the Pokemon Trainer! Since she too is from Region and town as Red!"

"And your proof is?" Samus questioned. Jade pulled out a Pokeball and tossed it in the air, "In the battle we had, Leaf and I only used Pokemon from Kanto. She also used the starter Pokemon, Bulbasaur, who evolves into Ivysaur, and finally Venasaur."

"Okaaayyy?" Marth frowned and held his hands up, "Since I have no clue as to where you're going with this or who you are. I'm just going to let you continue."

"As I was saying, the Pokemon trainer caught Ivysaur and Squritle during his journeys in Brawl, yet only one Pokemon from Brawl returned in Smash 4. Charizard."

Link frowned and stepped forward locking eyes with Jade, "The Pokemon Trainer started with Squritle, not Charizard."

"True, but from my viewpoint, Red was Leaf's rival, and she was Gary's, known as Blue/Green at the time." Jade said, "Therefore, it makes sense why she and Red both have high level starters at their peak power, like Charizard, who becomes your rival's Pokemon if you picked Bulbasaur"

"And why should we believe you?" Mario questioned, "You magically show up, battle Leaf then refuse to tell us your name." he tilted his head a scowl slowly curling on his lips, "Who are you? And why are you here?"

Jade thought about this, her slight grin being replaced by a look of distress, it seemed like she too was wondering why she was here. Leaf opened her mouth to say something, but Link cut her off, "And if Red was your friend, then why should we trust him? He's forgotten, which means that he's working with Ta as well."

"What? No! He doesn't work with Ta!" Leaf argued. Samus leaned forward and Pikachu mumbled, "It's hard to believe, but Red was one to strive for greatness…"

"Just because I wanted to be the champ. Doesn't mean that I back-stab everyone." Leaf felt her head spin as she looked at the doorway, there was Red, arms folded and his traditional battle face on. Drawcia and Lucario were hovering behind him. Nervous and guilty looks on their face.

"Pokémon Trainer?" Samus tilted her head while Red entered the room, refusing to look at anyone, "We aren't with Ta." Red said, his voice low and even, "Yes, he brought us back, and yes. He offered me a chance revenge but I declined. I didn't want to be reminded of a failure of a journey."

Leaf winched and rubbed her arms, she had lost touch with Red after he had beaten the Johto Elite Four, and heard rumors that he had vanished completely after he visited a mountain top in Honneh, but she didn't expect Red to be so cold toward the others. Was this a side effect of his journeys?

Red pulled up a chair and sat down beside Leaf, daring the others to argue, "Well? I'll happily answer questions that you have." Red said, Leaf nodded in agreement. Although she felt nervous since she barely had any knowledge of what Ta was planning.

"What's Ta's attack strategy?" Marth asked, Red barley flinched at the blunt question and easily replied, "Not exactly sure, Ta doesn't include those who wish to live peacefully in his war plans, sometimes he'll brag to us, but that's about it." Red frowned and quickly added, "Although, he told me that he found a new way to pull fighters into this realm. He's using something called, 'data' of other fighters from other worlds who are also forgotten."

"That would explain how Sonic knew Scourge." Link mused, Samus nodded in agreement, "And why Kirby was already on the offensive earlier."

"Hold it!" they jumped as Jade once again made herself known to the conversation, she pointed at Red, a frown on her lips, "Scourge isn't a video game character!"

"He's not?" Mario asked, Jade shook her head and folded her arms, "Scourge is the Anti of Sonic, however, this is _only_ in a comic book world, after a major story line in the recent Sonic the Hedgehog comics, Scourge and his friends, along with tons of other characters were forbidden to use due to the creator leaving and taking his characters with him. The only possible way for Scourge to be here, is if Ta used the character skins from Sonic Generations, but that's highly unlikely since most were flawed to a slight degree."

Jade took a deep breath and muttered, "Hooray for lightheadness."

"And, you know this how?" Link questioned, "I'm pretty sure that Pokémon trainers don't read comics." Jade's frown quickly changed to a goofy grin, "I tend to play more video games when I'm not traveling, I was interested in a comic and checked around a couple bookstores until I found Sonic the Hedgehog, after that, I started reading wikis to catch up on the past characters."

"…Rightt…" Link said, unsure what a 'wiki' was and what a 'video game' could possibly be. Leaf bit back a frown at how out of the loop Link seemed, despite being surrounded by electronics 24/7.

"Well that was informative." Samus quipped, then she asked, "So what's with the weird codename, Rehtom 3?"

"Probably to make it so one of them could sneak in and spy on you." Red answered, "It's probably a name of a place where that fighter used to be, certain powers, skills extra."

Samus frowned and questioned, "How the heck do you spell Rehtom 3?"

"Well, there's a Reh, that's for sure." Jade supplied, she stole a piece of paper and started to doddle on it, "Anything else?" Samus asked, Jade thought for a bit before she offered, "It's probably spelled R-e-h-t-o-m 3." She scribbled something down before showing it to Samus, "Huh, that still doesn't look right." Samus muttered.

Link and Marth exchanged looks before Leaf tried to get a better look at the piece of paper, unable to see it properly Leaf settled on looking at the reflection in Samus's viser, however, instead of Rehtom 3, she saw 3 Mother.

"Huh?" Leaf leaned back and frowned, "Something wrong Leaf?" Red questioned, not seeing what she was, "It's nothing, but I see Rehtom 3 spelled as 3 Mother."

"3 Mother?" Mario questioned, "What kind of codename is that?"

"Maybe the 3 goes after Mother?" Marth offered, "Like Mother 3?" Jade blinked and gasped, "Lucas!" Now everyone gave the girl blank looks, she scowled and explained, "Mother 3, it's a game in the Earthbound series, Lucas is the main protagonist of Mother 3 while Ness is in Earth bound."

"Well that would explain Lucas's disappearance." Red mused, "He's been missing for a while now."

"Does anyone know where Lucas is currently?" Mario asked, Marth frowned then nodded, "I last saw him hanging around the library." Jade jumped up and said, "Then let's go get him!" Leaf hesitantly looked at Red who shook his head. Leaf slumped slightly but knew he was right, if they were to come along then it would create more chaos if they accidentally interfered.

"So we just stay here, right?" Red questioned, Marth stopped and hesitated, allowing Link, Mario, Samus, Pikachu and Lucario to pass him, "You three shall come along." Marth finally decided, "But you're hanging back. Understand?"

"Sure!" Jade said, Red and Leaf merely nodded. A sinking feeling forming in the pit of their stomach.

* * *

Dark Pit soared above the forest, skimming the tree tops while lazily scanning the small holes that offered sunlight to the ground, Dark Pit had made himself promise not to spend too much flying since Pit would get surprise and ask him how he was able to regain his limitless flight ability.

Dark Pit frowned and felt the smooth surface of the purple pendant that Sonic had given him. It had slowly increased his flight time until he was finally able to fly freely, and without a time limit. He had been careful but apparently, not careful enough since Pit had confronted him a couple minutes ago.

At first it wasn't anything to worry about, he just asked him for his thoughts on the invasion, Dark Pit had bluntly answered, saying that he was neutral, not wanting to be a pawn in two gods' game. He had used what little he had heard to deuce that Ta wasn't solely aiming for the fighters. He was aiming for something bigger, probably wanted to form an army to fight the person who replaced him.

And judging by how in control Ta sounded he must have been a major threat in the last tournament. If he was from Brawl, then that would explain why he could easily send his fighters after that odd gun and kidnapedp Mr. Game n Watch. Who apparently played an important role last tournament.

Pit of course, hadn't put the simple facts behind Ta's motive and had argued that he couldn't just sit on the sidelines, letting people he cared about get hurt. This of course, made Dark Pit snap and angrily retort that the only people he cared about was Pit, and possible Shiek, who was attempt to have conversations with him.

Sure, they weren't pleasant ones since Sheik seemed so nervous and on guard all the time and always asked touchy questions, like what was a clone or why Dark Pit hung around Pit despite his hatred for Palutena. But whenever Shiek wasn't asking him questions, they would usually just sit around, admire the forest life or spare for fun.

Of course, that was before Sheik had vanished and left Samus a nervous wreck. How no one else could see Samus slowly breaking down with worry he didn't know. Dark Pit sighed and shook his head, he needed to clear his thoughts before-

"Oh come on!" Dark Pit yelled as he crashed into a tree and tumbled down to earth, Dark Pit sat up and glared at the tree, "Having fun Virdi?" Dark Pit snapped. Knowing full well that the earth goddess wasn't even in Smash officially.

"Pitto!"

"Great." Dark Pit grumbled, he turned around and sent Pit a glare as the angle caught up to him and collapsed, breathing hard.

"Yes? Want to knock some more sense into me?" Dark Pit challenged, Pit frowned and panted, "N-no, I wanted to talk."

"About?"

"About you! You seem, well, angrier lately."

"Well, if you realize that you're the only one who can figure Ta's main objective and that your surrounded by panicky idiots then your mood would take a nosedive as well!" Dark Pit snapped.

"What are you talking about-," Pit started then he faltered and listened, "Do you… hear that?" Dark Pit frowned and listened as well, trumpets, high pitched squeaky trumpets. Coming from around the lake area.

"It sounds like someone's playing a trumpet." Dark Pit said slowly.

"Who owns a trumpet?" Pit questioned.

"No one, that's who." Dark Pit grumbled, he stood up and headed for the source of the noise Pit followed him but kept his distance when he noticed Dark Pit's bow.

"What… Is that?" Pit asked, Dark Pit shrugged and studied the odd little creature standing by the lake, playing an odd horn like instrument made out of wood. It was happily playing random notes before it would spin and find a tempo.

"How should I know?" Dark Pit grumbled, "Although… It reminds me of Link." Pit nodded in agreement studying the odd green tunic, hat and blonde hair.

"Come on, we might as well find out why its here." Dark Pit deiced, he climbed out of the brush and stopped before the small creature, he cleared his throat loudly, startling the creature and earning a yelp as it took a step back.

"Oh, hello there Pi!" the creature said, its' voice high pitched and squeaky, sounding hilarious. Dark Pit would have laughed if he wasn't wondering what the heck it was, "What are you?" Dark Pit asked. The creature blinked and tilted his head, "What? You don't know Pi? I am a Deku Scrub, named Deki!" Deki's oddly shaped mouth curved upward as it chirped, "Pleased to meet you Pi!"

"Uh, nice to meet you to Deki. I'm Dark Pit and the loser behind me is Pit."

Pit poked him in the ribs before he bent down and asked, "Why are all the way out here Deki? We have a playground near the entrance of the forest if you wanted to play."

Deki jumped slightly at how close Pit was but managed an upbeat reply, "Oh, I know that Pi! But Mr. Link said that I should play in the woods Pi! Besides, I like the woods, it reminds me of home Pi."

"You know Link?" Dark Pit questioned, Deki nodded and grinned, "Of course Pi! Mr. Link helped saved my home Pi! And prevented the moon from falling and a bunch of other awesome deeds Pi!"

"Wait a second, Link never stopped the moon from falling." Pit said, "He and Minda battled the forces of Twilight!" Dark Pit shot Pit a look of mock surprise, "You actually learned something? It must a miracle!" Pit glared at him while Deki frowned, "What? That's not possible Pi. Mr. Link never worked with Minda, he was with a fairy Pi. I know this since I helped him save the world Pi!"

"Deki, what does Mr. Link look like?" Dark Pit asked, not liking where this was going.

"Oh! He wears a green tunic Pi! But he looks like a child." Deki explained, he frowned slightly and rubbed his arm, "But don't call Mr. Link a child Pi. He may look like one, but he told me that he was in a time traveling mission before he came to Termina Pi."

"Your friends with Mask?! The guy who destroyed Link in battle a couple days ago?" Pit asked, Dark Pit snickered as he remembered the battle, it had been humiliating and Link had left the match fuming.

Deki frowned and tilted his head once more, "What are you talking about? I am friends with Link Pi. I don't like the wolf man Pi."

"Well that would explain those cold glares." Dark Pit muttered, they always seemed wolfish to him… He blinked in surprise as Pit jumped back, weapons drawn and a look of determination on his face, Deki jumped back in surprise and looked at Dark Pit, "Did I say something wrong Pi?"

"I honestly don't know." Dark Pit admitted he turned to Pit and said, "Knock it off Pit, you're scaring him." Pit hesitated slightly but stood tall, "Pitto, Mask is with Ta right? So that means that Deki's working with Ta!"

"Ta?" Deki frowned and started jumping up and down in anger, "No! I'm not friends with Ta Pi! Ta is a two face Pi!" Dark Pit pointed to Deki and said, "Oh wow, we better look out for the backstabbing Deku Scrub."

"Wha-, Deki not a backstabber Pi!" Deki huffed and folded his arms.

"I was joking Deki," Dark Pit explained, biting his lip slightly in order not to laugh at Deki, he turned to Pit who was slowly lowering his weapons, most people would think that Pit would be convinced by Deki's honest answer but Dark Pit knew Pit's true feelings, most of them anyway.

Deki was on the opposite team of his 'wonderful' goddess, which meant that it was merely another monster for Pit to fight. Dark Pit sighed in frustration and offered, "Before you go off and start fighting, how about we get the facts straight?" Pit frowned but nodded in agreement, "So if you're not working with Ta, then why are you close friends with Mask."

"Why does everyone call Mr. Link Mask Pi?" Deki questioned, "His name is Link!"

"Okay fine," Dark Pit sighed, "Why are you close friends with Link?"

"Mr. Link gave me a second chance at life Pi!" Deki explained, "A evil mask took control of a Skull Kid, and he cursed me to be a withered tree!" he frowned and his head drooped slightly, "If it wasn't more Mr. Link… Then I wouldn't be able to race my Father once last time before we had to leave Pi…"

"You were a cursed tree. And Link saved you?" Pit asked. Deki laughed sadly and shook his head, "No, Mr. Link managed to save everyone in Termina. But he arrived too late to save me Pi…" then he brightened and said, "Don't worry Pi! Mr. Link allows me to run around and play when were not too busy Pi!"

"I'm… Confused…" Pit admitted, Dark Pit nodded in agreement and tried a different question, "If you dislike Ta so much, then why is Ma- Link still working for him."

"That's because Mr. Link feels that Ta is the only person to lessen the pain Pi." Deki explained glumly, "Mr. Link had a hard childhood, and was forced to choose between people on his next adventure Pi. He would do so many good deeds in three days, but they would be erased Pi. He wanted to help everyone, and he could! But…" Deki trailed off and looked ashamed of himself.

"But he couldn't. He had to choose between who he wanted or needed to save." Dark Pit guessed. Deki nodded sadly.

"Poor guy…" Pit mumbled. Dark Pit nodded in agreement, "That's probably why he tried to make Link chose, he wanted to see if Link was forced to make the sacrifice he had to make."

Deki frowned but didn't voice his thoughts instead he started to kick pebbles into the lake. Dark Pit and Pit exchanged looks, Deki seemed pretty cool, childish but cool. Perhaps he was indeed against Ta-

"Get back here!" They jumped and looked into the woods just in time to see Lucas jump over a brush and tumble, "Ow…" he muttered, he looked up and froze when he spotted Dark Pit who frowned and folded his arms.

"Hi guys!" Lucas chirped, a glint of possible insanity in his eyes, "If anyone comes by just ignore them." Dark Pit raised an eyebrow as an arrow whizzed overhead, landing beside Lucas, "Never mind then!" Lucas chirped. He was about to run away when something tackled him and pinned him to ground.

"Alright Pinkgirlgirl!" a voice cheered. The Pokemon trainer girl from before appeared from the forest and patted the odd serpent like creature's head.

"Got him!" The girl yelled, a couple moments later, Link, Mario, Samus, Leaf and a boy with a red hat stumbled out of the brush. "I'm not even going to ask how you caught up before we did." Mario muttered as Samus attempted to take charge, "Alright Lucas, either tell us why you were sent here and possibly any of Ta's plans or prepared to be blasted into outer space."

"Since when could you do that?" the red capped boy asked, Samus fidgeted and muttered, "Oh shut up." Before she looked at Lucas who was struggling to escape from Pinkgirlgirl's grasp.

"Well?" Link questioned, "Your answer?" Lucas managed to pull one arm free and shot an apologetic glance at the red capped boy, "Sorry Red!" then he shouted, "PK Fire!" aiming for a Pokeball on Leaf's belt, Leaf yelped and dove to the side to avoid blast. Unfortunately, the spare Pokeball Leaf hadn't been so lucky. Dark Pit shielded his eyes as an explosion of purple and black nearly blinded him.

"What's going on?!" Dark Pit demanded once he was able to see, he looked around and frowned as purple and black snow drifted from the sky. "What… Are those?" Leaf asked.

"Shadow bugs." Mario said, panic evident in his voice, "But… What are they doing here?" Marth questioned. Dark Pit frowned and looked around, it seemed like everyone understood the dangers of the shadows bugs except him, Leaf and Deki. Who suddenly chirped and pointed to Lucario who was the last to arrive, "Look Pi! The bugs are swarming him Pi!" It was true, Lucario was surrounded by a swirling mass of shadow bugs, he tried to push past but the tornado refused, becoming thicker until it engulfed him.

"Beat it bugs!" Samus yelled, firing a pre-charged blast at the tornado. It broke apart then flew off, Dark Pit frowned and was about to jump into the air to give chase when Marth yelled, "Lucario! Are you alright?"

Red stepped forward to check on the Pokemon when the girl stopped him, "He's a Shadow Pokemon." The girl grimly said, she pointed to Lucario who was struggling to stand up, a purple aura replacing his soothing blue one.

"Shadow Pokemon? Leaf questioned, "What are those?" the girl fidgeted and gave a short explanation, "Experimented Pokemon who had their hearts closed to make them power and much more deadly." She tossed Red and Leaf Two Ultra balls and warned, "Once Lucario stands up, send out you're strongest Pokémon and try and catch him. If he escapes, then there's no way of saving him."

"What?!" Pit yelped, "I thought we just had to beat them to turn them back!"

"Normally, that would be the case." Link said, "But if we were to fight outside of a stage, then we would risk the chance of turning Lucario into a trophy." Red frowned and straightened his hat, "So it is a Pokemon battle after all."

Leaf managed a shaky grin and sent out Snoozy, "Good thing I brought Snoozy along." She joked. The girl grinned and was about to make a joke when she was slammed in the chest with a purple aura sphere. She gasped and tumbled into the lake, "I don't like this Pi…." Deki whimpered, he scooted closer to Dark Pit while Pit attempted to fish the girl out of the pond.

"I'll go see the rest of the damage!" Dark Pit volunteered, not liking the upcoming battle, Samus nodded and yelped as Lucario lunged forward, attempting to use Force Palm.

"Snoozy! Use Psychic to stop Lucario!" Leaf ordered, Red sent out Ivysaur and yelled, "Follow up with Stun Powder Ivysaur!" Dark Pit winched as Lucario somehow dodged the attacks and fired an Aura sphere at the duo, the jumped out the way and gawked at the tree behind them, shocked to see that Lucario's attack had created a creator in the middle.

"Come on Pit!" Dark Pit yelled, Pit nodded and shakily flew upwards, following Dark Pit who flew toward the center of the park. "Help!" Dark Pit blinked and looked down to see Deki holding onto his leg for dear life, "Deku Scrubs glide Pi! Not fly!" Deki wailed.

"Sorry Deki!" Pit yelled, "We didn't notice you!" Deki whimpered and tightened his grip around Dark Pit's leg, Dark Pit ignored the Deku Scrub for a moment and stopped, surprised at how hard it was to see between the Shadow Bugs, "Look!" Pit pointed down and Dark Pit followed his gaze, he frowned as an odd green and black creature soared past them.

"What are those?" Dark Pit asked.

"Normal Primids." Pit said, "There clumps of Shadow Bugs that come to life and attack people."

"They don't look to tough."

"That's because the other Primids haven't spawned yet." Pit muttered, then he dove down yelling, "Come on!"

"Can I hide in a tree Pi?" Deki asked, not liking the small army below them, "Sadly, no." Dark Pit said, he followed Pit, landed beside him and started firing arrows.

"We're going to have to start using melee attacks soon." Dark Pit noted, "There getting way to close for comfort. Pit nodded in agreement and summoned his Upperarm, Dark Pit summoned his Eletrcoshock and they charged past the Normal Primids, the monsters barely standing a chance against the combined Angles attacks.

"Yea!" Pit cheered.

"Hold on!" Dark Pit warned, slightly annoyed by how quick Pit was to celebrate, "There's something going on near the fountain!"

"Hey, isn't that Phoenix and- Ack!" Pit hit the floor to avoid getting hit by a fully charged Thunder blast that sailed over head and slammed into a tree.

"I don't like this Pi!" Deki said, he had briefly helped out in the battle by twirling around in circles as he dashed around and somehow using his green hat as a blade. It worked, until the Normal Primids had forced him back.

"Nobody likes this Deki." Dark Pit grumbled, "Come on, might as well see what's going on." Pit nodded in agreement and they broke into a sprint. "Owl! Please!" Phoenix yelled, she jumped over fully charged Thunder and countered with Elfwind briefly pushing Owl back.

"I don't want to hurt you!"

Owl said nothing and merely lunged forward with his Levin blade, forcing Phoenix to pull out her own Levin blade to defend herself, "Hold on Phoenix!" Pit yelled as Dark Pit charged forward with Electroshock, he smirked as Owl crashed into the stone pillar of the Smash Ball and crumpled into the water.

"Wait! Be careful, I think he's under a spell-," Phoenix started to say when Pit cut her off, "Sorry Phoenix, but Owl's gone." Phoenix blinked and lowered her sword, "What? What are you talking about? He's fine!"

"He's possessed by some bugs called, well, Shadow Bugs." Dark Pit said, keeping a wary eye on Owl who was slowly struggling to sit up. Pit nodded in agreement and looked down, "The only way to free them, is to defeat them."

"But, then he'll turn into a trophy!" Phoenix yelled, "I'm not going to let Owl become-,"

"Watch out!" Dark Pit shoved Phoenix aside as Owl lunged forward, Pit summoned his Guardian Orbitars, Owl was shoved back but managed to use Arcfire before he slammed into the stone statue once more.

"I got this." Dark Pit announced, he lunged forward and used his blades to force Owl into the air before he launched upward and kicked him back down.

Phoenix shakily used Arcfire while Pit fired his bow, Owl attempted to defend himself but the onslaught of attacks was too much for him to withstand. Within seconds Owl was a battered trophy, and Phoenix was trying hard not to cry.

"Come on, we better go see if anyone else needs help." Pit offered, although Dark Pit noticed that his voice wavered slightly.

"They'll need more help Pi…" Deki noted, "I think Ta plans for an onslaught until he's sure that everyone's destroyed Pi…"

"What!? He said we had four days!" Pit argued, Deki nodded and rubbed his arm, "But on the third day Pi… Everything comes down to a single hero's action Pi…"

"So he's controlling the Shadow bugs until Midnight?" Dark Pit questioned, Deki nodded and mumbled, "Deki thinks so Pi…"

Phoenix blinked and shook her head, "I'm not even going to ask why your speaking to a living tree. But," she looked up, a determined glint in her eye, "We should press on and form a small party to battle against anyone else who's under the Shadow Bugs control."

"Right!" they walked down the path, occasionally beating up Normal and Fire Primids until they heard creepy laughter, followed by a terrified scream, They stopped and drew there weapons just as Red (The Toon Link, not the awesome Pokemon trainer) came stumbling out of the bushes followed closely by Vio and Shadow.

Shadow was yelling, "I told you they were demon children!" while Vio snapped, "Please be quiet so I can think!" Red looked up and yelped, "Too late!" just as Treeleaf jumped out of the bushes, a purple aura similar to Owl and Lucario's around her.

"They got Treeleaf?" Dark Pit mused, Shadow glared at him and snapped, "No! They got the whole creepy cult!" Treeleaf smirked and planted a tree, before she could finish a Light arrow shot her in the back and quickly turned her into a trophy. Toon and Blue stumbled out of the woods, panting hard.

"Four down," Toon started, "four left." Blue finished.

"Do you know where they are?" Pit asked, Toon and Blue shook their heads, "They jumped us, and split up before we could focus." Shadow frowned and help up his hand, "Ya know, I just remembered something very important."

"What's that?" Phoenix asked, Shadow summoned a bomb and held it over his head, "That I can do this, and sense those weirdos since their covered in shadows."

"And you _just_ remembered this!?" Blue yelled, Shadow ignored him and hurled the bomb into the woods, where it promptly blew up. The four remaining Villagers came tumbling out the trees as trophies with a pitiful, Thud.

"Well that was easy." Dark Pit said. Deki shook his head and grumbled, "Bombs are dangerous Pi."

"Oh, Hey Deki, Mask letting you run around for a bit?" Shadow asked with a knowing smirk.

"Why does everyone call Mr. Link Mask PI!?" Deki demanded, "I would really like to know Pi!"

"Sorry, it's a secret." Shadow teased, Deki huffed and folded his tiny arms, not liking the obvious joke Shadow was playing on him.

"Can we focus on the matter at hand?" Vio snapped, "Like the giant monster in the main room?"

"Giant monster?" Dark Pit questioned, Toon nodded and explained, "Somehow, Yellow Demon broke out of the Stage Select, when we left Shulk, Ike, Roy and Mewtwo to deal with him while the girls faced some monster called Duon."

"Duon _and Yellow Devil_?!" Pit exclaimed, Toon nodded and winched as a roar could be heard in the far distance, Shadow whistled and leaned against the tree, "As much as I _hate_ to be the bringer of destruction, we've got company."

They looked up and jumped back as a swarm of Auroros dive bombed them, Blue hurled a bomb at them and yelled, "Go on! We'll take care of the birdbrains!" Toon nodded in agreement and slashed a stray Auroro.

"Right!" the group move on, fighting Primids and other enemies along the way until they were forced to stop, "They blocked the main entrance!" Pit exclaimed, surprised that the once mindless creatures from Subspace had managed to create such an imposing detour.

"The library!" Phoenix realized, "We can head the main hall from there!" they changed course and booked it to the library only to find it a mess of burning books and rubble.

"What happened here!?" Dark Pit demanded, there was a loud, WHOOSH! And they looked up just in time to see a giant robot rhino hurl Metaknight into the wall behind them, Dark Pit watched as Metaknight gave a groan of a pain before he turned into a trophy.

"Meta!" Kirby wailed, he was in the midst of the battle, attempting to take on the rhino with only King Dedede's help, Dark Pit and Pit quickly prepared their arrows while Phoenix sprinted forward, Levin in hand as she slashed the robot's foot.

Startled by the sudden newcomer the rhino clumsily took a step back and fired missiles, Kirby and King Dedede dove out of the way while Phoenix merely gritted her teeth and yelled, "Thunder!" firing a 100% bolt of pure electricity. Destroying the missiles while also knocking the Rhino over

"Now!" Dark Pit ordered, the angles flew into the air and spun their blades, hacking into the rhino's amour and destroying its core.

"Everyone! Outside!" Pit ordered, as the rhino began to make an ominous ticking sound, they raced outside, winching as a loud boom could be heard, Dark Pit hit the floor, waiting from rubble to fly overheard. But instead he felt something pulling at him, like a powerful gust of wind.

"Pitto!" Dark Pit lifted his head and glanced behind him, trying to see what Pit was so upset about, then he saw a black hole pulling in everything from the sky to the ground.

"A subspace bomb!?" King Dedede yelled, trying to be heard over grating roar, "Here?!"

"I'm guessing that's not good?" Phoenix questioned, Dark Pit shot her a look of, 'no duh," before he spotted Pit carrying Deki. He was flapping in the wind like a flag, the only support he had was from his bow, that was planted into the ground

"Pit!" Dark Pit scrambled to his feet to try and save him but Kirby stopped him a look of defeat on his puffy pink face, "It's too risky Dark Pit!" King Dedede yelled, "Get to close and you're a goner!"

"So!? I'm a goner either way if I don't help Pit!" Dark Pit retorted. He spread his wings and flew forward, careful to fight the pull the growing black hole was creating, he grabbed Pit's arm and tried to take a step back. Only to find that the pull was to great, every attempt to step back was like trying to pull your foot out of a bucket of glue, slowly getting harder and harder until your foot was glued to the bucket.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Dark Pit yelled, Pit managed a light smile as he tried to put his feet on solid ground, "Yea, I'm starting to think that fate hates us."

"Or that dumb Goddess of yours." Dark Pit muttered, he glanced at Deki who was trembling and holding onto to Pit's arm for dear life, "Don't worry Deki, we're going to be fine." Dark Pit said, trying to muster up the urge to offer a comforting smile.

Deki stiffened then relaxed, "As soon as I get back, I'm tying Ta to a pole." Deki said, the woodland accent vanishing as he spoke, Pit and Dark Pit blinked in surprise then yelped as Deki reached up and removed his face, a glow of light engulfing him before Dark Pit felt someone grab his arm and yell, "Hold on!" before they were jerked forward and crashed into a tree.

"Oww…" Pit groaned while Dark Pit sat up and looked around for Deki, instead he saw Mask, who was somehow standing and wielding something that looked like a Hookshot.

"Mask? Then where did-," Dark Pit started to ask when Mask held up a mask, it was carved out of wood and had a sad expression on its face. It looked like Deki.

"Deki is right here." Mask answered, "He's a spirit inside the mask." He looked up toward the sky and frowned, "If you want any hope of saving your friends, I suggest you leave now."

"What?! Why should we trust you!?" Pit demanded, he shakily stood up and pointed his bow at Mask who didn't react to the weapon, "You shouldn't but Deki doesn't want to see you two get hurt, he's a child and sees you as his new 'friends.'" Mask explained, "Besides, I'm not a threat at the moment, it's nearly the Fourth Day, I'll be out in a coma like state until the it's the First Day again."

Pit frowned and said "That… Doesn't make sense." Mask shrugged and walked into the woods, leaving them alone with jumbled thoughts.

Dark Pit was the first to snap out of it and bark, "Come on! We're wasting time!"

"Nooo!" Kirby whined, Dark Pit and Pit looked at Kirby who was running from King Dedede, a purple aura around him, "Deja-vu." Pit muttered, Dark Pit nodded in agreement and yelled, "Don't worry Kirby! King Dedede's a push over!" before he jumped into the air and started to fly for the second entrance, Pit lagged behind him, careful to dodge the falling Shadow Bugs while asking, "Are you sure its okay to leave Kirby behind?"

"He'll be fine!" Dark Pit replied, "Besides, the only thing he has to worry about is King Dedede's dumb hammer."

"True…"

They landed and entered the cafeteria, just in time to see Shulk dodge a wild laser blast from the Yellow Devil, Ike and Roy were leaning on each for support, sporting heavy injuries while Mewtwo hovered nearby, firing Shadow Balls whenever The Yellow Devil lowered his guard, "Help is on the way!" Pit yelled, he fired and arrow while Dark Pit slammed into the robot with an Electro shock,

"Arc fire!" Phoenix yelled, before she dashed over to Shulk to help, the Yellow Devil skidded backward but didn't seem fazed by the attacks, "Having fun heroes?" the Yellow Devil mused.

"If this is what you define 'fun' then- wait, when did you learn to talk?" Pit questioned, he fired again while Mewtwo followed up with a Shadow Ball. "What's the plan Shulk?" Dark Pit yelled as he soared over the Yellow Devil's head, rapid firing his own arrows, Shulk wielded the Monado and stabbed the Yellow Devil's leg, "Besides stay alive? Not much! The more shadow bugs we seem to destroy, more appear!"

"It's a never-ending loop!" Roy yelled, he countered a stray attack from the Yellow Devil and glanced at Lucina and Zelda who were battling hordes of Primids that were attempting to swarm the cafeteria.

"Also Lucas ran past," Mewtwo supplied, "He somehow broke the Stage Selection which freed the Yellow Devil."

"Maybe if we stop Lucas, then the Shadow Bugs will stop?" Shulk suggested, Dark Pit pivoted sharply as the Yellow Devil suddenly focused on him, his wild attacks becoming a focused blade as it dissolved and reformed a mere meter away from him, "No. We have to head to Ta's base to stop it." Dark Pit yelled.

"Which none of us can do!" Ike snapped, "Are we just stuck playing the waiting game?!"

"Until midnight." Pit said. Ike growled and lunged at Yellow Devil who swatted him like a fly, slamming him into a wall.

"Take this!" Roy yelled, he threw his flaming sword up in the air and jumped after it, attempting to perform his special, The Yellow Devil saw this and grabbed Roy out of the air, slammed him into a wall before he dragged Roy down.

"Roy!" Shulk yelled, he gripped the Monado and started to search his arts, "Buster-," Shulk started to yell when a searing pain erupted on his hand, Dark Pit blinked when Shulk screamed in pain, grabbing his right hand. Phoenix and Lucina did the same as a butterfly emblem appeared on the Monado.

"What the-," Ike started to say when Phoenix and Lucina collapsed, forcing Zelda to fend for herself while protecting the young princess and while Shulk was left completely defenseless.

"Shulk? Are you okay?" Ike rushed over to his side then screamed in pain as Shulk grabbed his Monado and attacked Ike, turning him into a trophy with barely any effort.

"Shulk?! What's gotten into you!?" Roy gasped, The Yellow Devil blinked in surprise and dropped Roy, studying the Monado boy with interest, "Ah… This is what he meant…" The Yellow Devil murmured.

Shulk stood up, his eyes dull and lifeless while the Monado pulsed with power, Dark Pit landed beside the boy only to regret it as Shulk silently attacked him with Air Slash, "Shulk, snap out of it!" Dark Pit ordered, "What's going on?!"

"Is he possessed like the others?" Pit wondered, Mewtwo frowned and shook his head, "No, I still sense some mental control. But it appears that someone is using him like a puppet."

"Mewtwo! Watch out!" Mewtwo looked up and blinked in surprise as Shulk lunged forward, startled by the sudden attack Mewtwo stood in place, dumbfounded until Roy leapt in front of the attack, taking the brunt force of the attack.

"Roy you idiot-," Mewtwo started to yell when Shulk's blade extended, hitting them both, "Never mind." Mewtwo grumbled as they fell to the floor and turned into trophies. "Hey! Can I play too?" Dark Pit blinked in surprise and turned, there standing on a counter was a robot with black, orange and red gloves.

"Who are you?" Pit questioned,

the robot's blue eyes lit up, "I'm Emerl! I want to bring Hope to Humanity!"

Dark Pit blinked and questioned, "And just how, do you plan on doing that?"

"Not sure yet! But you guys need some help!" Emerl replied.

"And how are you going to help?!" Pit asked, "You're a robot against a sword built to destroy robots!"

"So? I'll be careful!" Emerl said, unfazed by the dangers, "After all, I'm all grown up!"

"Okay then…?" Dark Pit questioned, then to everyone's surprise the robot sprinted, glided in the air for a brief second before it spun kick Shulk and used the extra air provided to throw a blinking blue bomb on the boy.

Shulk cringed as he was throw into the air unable to move as Emerl landed, sprinted once more but began attempting to air juggle Shulk with a small blue creature.

When Shulk finally landed Emerl dropped another bomb, landed then sprinted away, before stopping and facing Shulk once more, "You guys take care of that other robot!" Emerl said, he spin-dashed and fired a blue wave of wind like energy at Shulk who crashed into the wall, "I'll take care of Shulk while my friends save the day!"

"You have friends?" Dark Pit asked, Emerl nodded and sprinted once more, only this time he launched into a three step combo finishing his attack with two powerful orbs that launched Shulk into the wall, "Of course I do! And there stopping Ta!"

* * *

"Wait, what?" Ta blinked in surprise as the funny little robot finished his sentence and started to destroy Shulk, "What friends?" Ta questioned while he attempted to force Shulk to fight back, Reptile, Glacier and Hammer shrugged, they had never seen the robot in their life.

"Well, he has a chao with him." Scourge offered, "Maybe there from my world?"

Zero mutely nodded in agreement then frowned, "I sense happiness…" 02 and Miracle frowned and started to look around the control room, sensing the same happiness that their Master felt, but unable to locate it.

"Vaati, use your wind magic to flush out the-," Ta started to say when there was an unearthly scream that sounded like singing, sending everyone in the room jumping in the air or cursing at the sudden sudden.

"What was that?!" Glacier demanded, Reptile and Wolf could only give them blank looks.

"It's coming from the rafters." Zero realized, they looked up just as the terrifying music changed to something regal and upbeat, like something you would hear in a cheesy Magic girl show, standing on the beams were two hedgehogs, they both had light green quills that reached their back, only the hedgehog on the right had black etched into hers.

The hedgehog on the left was wearing an apple green vest, dark blue jeans and a black and green shirt with two green and black striped hand-warmers while the hedgehog on the right was wearing a green and black jacket, a black shirt and even darker blue jeans than the girl on the left.

"Villains of worlds beyond ours!" The hedgehog on the left started, changing her standstill pose into a fighting pose, "Prepare to face the darkness that is known as light!" the hedgehog on the right finished, she kneeled and crossed her arms, "For we are, The Outsiders!" they said in unison, the hedgehog on the left spun and made an x with her arms, "Jewel!"

The hedgehog on the right stood up spun counter clock wise saying, "SJ!"

"Prepare to be trolled!" They finished.

Ta blinked and started to say "…Wha-," when Jewel uncrossed her arms and yelled "Head stomp!" teleporting and planting her foot firmly on Ta's head.

"Hey!" Ta yelled as Jewel jumped off and punched a fist in the air, "Yes! I was finally Chun Li!" SJ laughed and shook her head, "Really? We go from a terrible impersonation of Sailor Moon to Street Fighter."

"It was either that or finding a hammer." Jewel teased, SJ rolled her eyes as Jewel gasped, "Oh! I could have found a flamethrower and set everyone on fire!"

"Oh good, a pyromania." Reptile grumbled SJ blinked down at him then looked to Jewel, "Isn't that the guy who hide under boxes for every taunt?"

"Yup! He is, the box man!" Jewel said, then she added a, "Dun dun dun!"

"All in favor of destroying them?" Vaati asked, Jewel frowned and dodged a missile, "All in favor of destroying Ta's computer and getting our stuff back?" Jewel asked, SJ grinned and pulled a red Gameboy out of her pocket, "Sure, but first I have to destroy Ta."

"What wait?! You aren't destroying me!" Ta argued, Shadow pointed to the screen behind him, which should Shulk getting thrown into the air over and over again.

"…You see nothing!" Ta yelled, Scourge and Vaati rolled their eyes and focused on Jewel who was searching her vest pockets for something, "Magic first then speed?" Vaati questioned, Scourge grinned and got ready, "You know it-,"

"OMG It's Rosy the Rascal!" Jewel screamed, Scourge jumped half a foot in the air as Jewel snickered at his reaction, "Nah, I'm joking, it's really just Jewel the Mercenary."

"Jewel the who now?" Vaati questioned, Jewel smirked and opened a red 3ds, a warrior wearing ninja clothing and wielding a pointed double edge blade appeared and quickly started to attack.

"Scatter!" Reptile ordered, as the girl finished the combo with a giant tornado, Ta yelped and scrambled out of the way, watching in horror as the tornado destroyed the computer console, "M-my future warriors!" Ta whimpered, Glacier and Hammer went to comfort the poor man while Zero frowned and said, "Stop being so happy." Jewel and SJ stuck their tongues out at him and pointed their devices at them.

"Hey Ta!" Jewel called, SJ groaned and jumped down beside her, practically floating before she safely landed, Ta looked up and growled, "What?"

"U-G-L-Y you ain't got no Albie-," Jewel started to sing, Wolf, Reptile, Glacier and Hammer gasped and looked away, repressing the urge to giggle. Ta however, snarled and snapped, "Shut Up!"

"Hey Wolf!" SJ called while they slowly backed up to the door, Wolf looked up just in time to see SJ mimic Falco's taunt, "Hands off my friends." SJ said in a serious voice, the strangled grin on Wolf's face disappeared and was quickly replaced by a murderous grin, "Do you just want to die?" Wolf questioned.

"Nah, not really." Jewel said, "I just wanna bug ya guys."

"Well it's working." Vaati snickered, he stopped laughing when Shadow switched game cartridge and Link appeared, wearing a very annoying duck like hat.

" _You!"_ Vaati spat, the force of his anger summoning a tornado around him as Link readied his sword, "And can't forget the awesome Blaze!" Jewel chirped, Scourge looked up from his laughing fit just in time to see a flaming cat slam into him.

"ARGH! Not cool! Not cool!" Scourge yelped as he dropped to the floor and rolled around trying to put of the fires on his leather jacket, Miracle, 02 and Zero watched the chaos with content smiles.

"I wonder if there interested in joining us." Miracle mused, SJ overheard and snapped, "Not in your life!" causing Link to vanish and Vaati to trip over his cape as he tried to stop himself from crashing into a wall, Miracle snickered at this but felt all happiness at the chaos vanish when a pink puffball appeared in front of them.

"You have got. To be kidding me." Zero said his eye narrowing in displeasure, Kirby looked up at him with the Sword power, ready to fight.

Ta watched as his team scrambled around the room, trying to destroy either the hedgehogs or their rival, "Stop!" Ta ordered, "Focus on the girls! There summoning those pests!"

"Peanut Butter Jelly and a baseball bat!" Jewel yelled, hurling a baseball bat which had not been in her hand a moment before. It hit Ta hard in the face. "And now, we leave!" Jewel said, she crossed and uncrossed her arms, disappearing while SJ stayed behind, an amused smile on her face, "Really? You're going to take all of us on?" Zero questioned, winching as Kirby chased around Miracle and 02 with his sword.

"Nah, I'm a shadow, and where my owner goes. I go." And with a grin SJ sank into the shadows and disappeared, Ta blinked for a full minute before he bit his tongue and suppressed a scream of fury.

Was there anything else that could go wrong!?

"Hey Ta, there's an important message on the back up computer." Glacier said, Hammer glanced at it and winched, "It's asking for permission to delete all files."

"What?! Hit no! Hit no!" Ta screeched, Glacier clicked pressed no then winched as a computerized voice boomed, "All files, deleted." No one spoke for a good five minutes before Snake shakily checked his communicator's built in computer.

"There still in the building." Snake announced, "According to the scanners, their near the dining room." Ta didn't even look up, he merely stood up and exited the computer room his thoughts blinded by the angry fog of revenge.

He slammed the dining room doors open and fought back a hiss as Jewel and SJ happily seated themselves at the long golden table, the moment the door opened Jewel looked up, surprising Ta slightly since she was plugged in to her musical device while playing her 3ds.

"Why." Was all Ta could manage to say, SJ looked up at him and bluntly said, "Copy right."

"Excuse me?!"

"Copyright," Jewel repeated, "You stole my designs for your crazy plan of revenge, therefore I had Vivra and Vicross destroy all your data."

"Who?"

"OC's." Jewel answered, she held up a kindle fire which had a grinning hedgehog with long black hair and rainbow colored eyes, besides her was a boy who looked bored and unamused, he looked like the girl only his was wearing a ski cap. They were both hedgehogs which only annoyed Ta even more.

"So there furries on a game. Lovely." Ta spat, Jewel frowned and opened her mouth to say something when the girl hedgehog stuck her tongue out and jeered, "We're more than game! We're the number one virus of the internet!"

The male hedgehog beside her blinked and said in a perfectly robotic voice, "We were designed as virtual weapons of war, Vivra handles hacking, while I re-code everything, while you were occupied Vivra opened a wormhole for me from Jewel's kindle and I recoded the commands while Vivra destroyed your data."

"Wha- that's impossible!" Ta snapped, he hadn't sensed any changes in his programs, so how had-,

"How did we get by you unnoticed?" Vicross guessed, "Simple, we're older, practically unknown viruses. Only people from our world would have been able to detect us."

"Yup!" Vivra chirped, she folded her arms, revealing vivid orange sleeves dotted with pink, "BTW, you have no internet. See ya!" and with that, the kindle fire shut off while Jewel attempted to smoother a grin and said, "Hasta Luego!" and formed an x with her arms, disappearing with SJ in tow.

Ta gawked at the place they once were and felt something click in his mind, "Oc's…" Ta repeated, "Who would have Oc's-," his eyes lit up in realization and fury, "Cheaters!" Ta screeched, "They cheated! They managed- They pulled- how!?" Ta stormed back to the computer room which was now empty and turned on his computer, he angrily clicked into a Miiverse account then into a Gmail, he finally he ended up at a computer background, showing a chibi version of Drawcia.

He clicked on a file labeled 'Story art.' And allowed a smug, twisted grin as he found three pictures and three completed bios to go with them, "This isn't over!" Ta declared, "The games are just beginning!" he clicked the pictures and jumped back to the camera surveillance of those annoying smashers' base.

He was thankful that Mask had secretly ignored his order for internet access and merely plugged their cameras into the Smash Four's. The battle was slowly ending, Shulk was leaning against a wall, knocked out while Pit and Dark Pit finished off The Yellow Devil.

Everywhere else, Smashers were wandering around the area surveying the damage with grim faces, only a handful now. Which was going to be even less once Ta was finished with them.

"Plan P." Ta muttered, he pressed a button and watched with glee as a vortex appeared behind Pit who was busy blocking an attack from The Yellow Devil, Ta bit back a laugh as a hand grabbed Pit around the waist, yanking him into Subspace. It was easy! Too easy. He watched as Dark Pit spun around and paled in horror as he realized what had happened.

Dark Pit angrily finished off The Yellow Devil and stormed to his room to sulk in peace, no one disturbed him, they were too busy doing damage control.

Once Ta was sure that no one was going to bother Dark Pit he pressed a button with a speaker on it, "Good evening Dark Pit." Ta said, his anger melting away as giddiness replaced it, Dark Pit's head snapped up and looked around trying to find the source of the voice.

"I wouldn't worry about that Dark Pit." Ta warned, "How about we worry about more important things, hmm?"

"I'm not worrying about anything until I figure out who's talking." Dark Pit snarled, "Or should I say, why Ta?"

"Oh!" Ta bounced on his heels and giggled, "Very good! Your smarter than that Pitty-pat angle."

"What do you want." Dark Pit demanded, he glared down at the winged amulet and went to tear it off, "Ah-ah!" Ta pressed a button and watched in silent delight as Dark Pit stifled a jump and a flash of pain flitted across his face.

"I'm here to offer you a deal."

Dark Pit laughed and glared around, "Sorry, but I don't _do_ deals with childish gods." Ta raised an eyebrow and dropped the act, "Understandable." Ta said, allowing his voice to resume the level of maximum control, Dark Pit flinched at the sudden change but didn't say anything.

"The deal's simple, I leave Pit unharmed if, you attack Marth tomorrow."

"And if I don't, then you'll happily torture Pit." Dark Pit guessed.

"And you." Ta sneered, "I know how you two work, if one dies then the other goes down as well. After all, your mirror images."

"I'll happily come down there and pound your face in before that." Dark Pit growled.

"True," Ta said, dropping the seriousness long enough to tease, "and if you did, then no one would realize that you were missing."

"And? I don't care about anyone-,"

"You care about Pit," Ta countered, "Not out of your own fear of death, but because you genially care about that softy. You made sure to stay neutral in hopes of avoiding being a bargaining chip in case something like this happened."

"I'm no one's pawn." Dark Pit snarled.

"And I'm not making you one," Ta said, "I'm just offering you a chance… For some payback."

Dark Pit rolled his eyes and closed them.

"Everyone's treated you like dirt ever since you got there, you're practically a villain in their eyes." Ta started.

"Yea, so why go around and proving that there right?" Dark Pit snapped.

"Well, don't you think it's unfair? You're a clone character, and yet you're the only one with the evil plastered to his title." Ta said, he smirked when he saw Dark Pit's body tense with ridge anger and pressed on, "Lucina's Marth clone, yet she's liked by everyone, Doctor Mario, he's Mario's clone who is equally accepted by his peers. The only person who really sticks out is you."

"Wario's not accepted." Dark Pit argued.

"Wario's barely a threat, he shall, and always be, a mindless puppet." Ta countered, "But besides the evil anti, you're the only person who's facing life or death here, everyone else is merely being turned into trophies."

"And you're the only person who can reverse the effects." Dark Pit grimly realized, Ta nodded, "Right, meaning that you have far more to lose than they do."

Dark Pit slowly nodded in agreement but didn't seem that convinced, he was an admirable foe, that was for sure. Dark Pit closed his eyes and sighed, "In order for Pit to be safe, all I need to do is attack Marth?"

"Yes. Honestly, all you need to do is attack an older smasher."

"And you couldn't pick Link, Mario and or Kirby?"

"Do you want to save Pit or not?"

"I'm not signing up for a bad deal." Dark Pit said, "What happens after I attack Marth,"

"Nothing, you get Pit safe and sound while-,"

"What. Happens. Afterwards." Dark Pit snarled, grounding out each word to get his point across, Ta whined slightly but grumpily answered, "Fine, after you attack Marth with the special weapons given to you, I'll require your help again."

"And that help will be?"

"I'll tell you when we get to that step." Ta snapped, he winched as Dark Pit gave a triumphant smirk.

"As I said before, when you attack Marth, you'll need special weapons to do so," Ta said, Dark Pit raised an eyebrow and lifted up his bow n arrow, Ta quickly steamrolled over his question with, "Tonight, at midnight your pendant shall transform into a long edge blade, use that when you attack Marth."

"Fine." Dark Pit said, he glanced at a clock which read 11 pm, before he closed his eyes and started to wait. With a pleased smirk Ta closed the camera system web browser and resumed looking at the pictures from before.

* * *

 **So... Anyone ever get that feeling when you thought up an awesome story idea and give the bad guys a bunch of awesome helpers to be a formidable foe only to realize that you screwed the heroes over with impossible odds? Yea... I realized that a couple chapters ago when I realized that Ta's army was way too big and there wasn't a none cliche way to reach Ta's base.**

 **Which is why the random fighters from other games showed up (Golden Sun Dark Dawn heroes, The World Ends With You, Pokemon, Fantasy Life and Sonic Battle all awesome games you should look up btw)I ended up writing in a OC character who draws other OC's for fun (Paradox with in a paradox) to help even the odds slightly so it wouldn't be overly impossible for the heroes to win.**

 **Plus, the joke about the U-G-L-Y song is something my Little Sister and I stumbled upon during the final battle of Super Smash Bros. I got annoyed with getting destroyed easily by the boss so I started taunting him and singing the U-G-L-Y song to make some light humor. Apparently he heard since every time I tried to taunt him he would use the Butterfly attack and kill us.**


	10. Chapter 10, The Fourth Day

**I don't own anything Smash related beside customs Miis(We own those, right?) and frustration from having to edit this chapter three times due to accidentally link clicking  
**

* * *

When Sonic came too, he had been expecting smiles of slight relief and then a heaping of bad news, not for the entire mood to be a funeral march.

"Doctor Mario, what the heck happened?" Sonic sat up and winched at the sudden pang in his chest, "How long was I out?" Doctor Mario looked up from some paper work with tired eyes, "A total of three days, Shadow assumes that you had a bad reaction to being pulled into the shadows and was recovering."

"So what happened?" Sonic ignored the pang in his chest and jumped off the medical bed, "Everything seems. Gloomier…"

Doctor Mario sighed and tossed Sonic a paper pad, "Yesterday, we were attacked by Shadow Bugs. We lost a ton of people due to the Subspace black holes and the attacks." Sonic flipped through it and felt a weight settle in his stomach.

"We would have lost everyone if this little robot didn't show up." Doctor Mario frowned then he added, "I think he called himself Emerl, and said that he wanted to bring Hope to Humanity."

"Hope to Humanity…?" Sonic blinked before a huge smile appeared, "Well, then, let's get started!" Doctor Mario frowned in surprise as Sonic sprinted out of the room, probably to talk to survivors.

"Hey guys!" Sonic grinned as Blue, Vio, Red and Toon looked at him from the abandoned café, they managed a weary smile and waved hello, "Yikes, I guess yesterday's attack was a big deal." Sonic said, Blue laughed and grumbled, "You have no idea."

"Yea!" Sonic jumped as Shadow materialized out of the floor and floated a couple inches off the floor, "We got attacked by the creepy children cult!"

"You mean the villagers?" Sonic asked.

"Same thing!"

"Okay then." Sonic turned to Toon who was studying Shulk, Lucina and Phoenix, they were talking about something while rubbing the back of their hand, "Something wrong?" Sonic asked.

Toon frowned and shrugged, "I'm not sure, yesterday, Shulk went bonkers and was controlled or something. When Emerl's friends stopped Ta, Shulk woke up with a headache and his hand was glowing."

"Man, Ta knows how to get into everyone's head." Sonic grumbled, Red nodded in agreement and played with his hat, "I think he messed with Dark Pit the most though, after they defeated Yellow Devil a black hole opened up and took Pit or something like that."

"Well, that explains why the main hall is a mess." Sonic acknowledged, studying the broken chairs and table that had been thrown into the center of the room. Vio nodded in agreement, "More or less, anyway the Council's meeting for a plan of action."

"Sweet! Catch ya guys later!" and with that Sonic sped off, he was determined to help out in some way or another. Sure, he had been out for most of the main events, but coming in late to the party seemed to be a recurring action.

"Hey guys!" Sonic winched as he was meet with frustrated glares, "No luck huh?"

"Well, for the time being we were trying to figure out what Adlez Keihs could mean." Link said, he gestured toward pieces of used paper and random drawings, "Of course, it didn't work since all we get is Zelda Sheik."

"Maybe that's what it means." Sonic suggested, Pikachu frowned and tilted his ears in confusion, "But Zelda and Sheik are on our side." He turned to Samus who seemed very uncomfortable with the topic at hand, "Right?" Samus squirmed and mumbled, "Yea…" earning skeptic glares, "Samus…" Link started, sounding like an adult, "Where's Sheik?" Samus squirmed some more before she confessed, "She's with Mask…But she's still on our side!"

"So Adlez Kiehs is Shiek?" Mario questioned in disbelief, Samus shrugged and wrung her hands, "After the first attack Sheik went over to spy on them, saying that no one would really miss her and how she could easily get in and out. She got caught or something." She hesitated before she added, "Mask came by to deliver a letter from her, to let me know that she was safe. But I haven't really heard from her after that."

"So Shiek's off on the bad guy's side and we're trapped in a box." Sonic guessed.

"Not to mention that whatever Ta's planning, it's going to happen today." Pikachu added, "The Spark Squad and Shadow aren't sure what to expect since they were only around for the first few missions."

"Plus for some reason," Samus started, "No one's heard from the Miis since the attacks started."

Sonic grimaced at how slim their chance of survival was, "Well, what about the owners?" Sonic suggested, "They helped us save the day in Brawl! They can help!"

"They haven't been online." Mario said, "And I doubt they would be able to figure out what was going on without breaking the tournament rules."

"Tournament rules?" Sonic jumped as Adventure jumped onto the table, "Which rules are we talking about? And how come we can't get the goofy owners to even the odds?"

Kirby frowned and nodded in agreement, liking Adventure's question, Samus sighed and tried to explain, "It's like Melee, we're all in a big tournament where we hang out and relax. Master Hand broadcasts our victories to another world, in turn the other world thinks that there playing a game, not knowing about our world. There are probably hundreds of thousand different broadcasts with different versions of us."

"Soooo, there would be an army of Pichus?" Adventure asked, hopeful that the answer would be a 'yes'.

"No, there are only four Pichus." Mario bluntly answered, Adventure growled and hopped off the table, he was about to crawl back into the vent when he stopped and yelled, "Yea well, there are now only four Pikachus!"

"What?!" Pikachu scrambled after Pichu who booked it, yelling, "I regret nothing!"

They all stared at the vent before Sonic suggested, "Maybe we could place motion bombs around the train station." Link shook his head no, "Megaman attempted that before he was turned into a trophy, but the item de-spawned since we were outside a proper stage."

"Those cannons?"

Mario shook his head, "Same with the motion bombs."

"Here's an idea!" they looked up to see Marth who was smiling, "How about we try seeing everyone's plan of action? Get a picture of the possible outcome."

"That sounds like a good idea." Mario said, the he frowned and asked, "But… why are you smiling?"

"Because Dark Pit and I stumbled upon Mask." Marth said, "And at the moment, every victory counts." Samus nodded in agreement with his statement.

"Great!" Link practically knocked his chair over, "Where is he?" Marth frowned slightly and said, "Hate to break it to you, but Mask is out cold. We threw him in a lake and he didn't even flinch!"

Link slumped slightly his hope of getting a rematch crushed into a thousand pieces.

"Come on!" Sonic said sounding slightly frustrated, "We have a war to win!"

* * *

"Alright, so here's what's going to happen." Link announced, "We need a plan of strategy to defend ourselves against Ta's army." Zelda nodded slightly and glanced around the main hall, everyone was there, battered, bruised but grim determined frowns on their faces.

"Any volunteers?" Mario asked. Zelda winched as only a couple people raised their hands, Lucina, Marth and oddly enough, Gannondorf.

"Gannondorf?" Samus questioned, Gannondorf stood up with a smug smirk, "It's simple, they invaded our base. So we invade there's." Metaknight's eyes flashed a light red asking, "But is it safe to travel into their world?"

"We believe so." Pikachu said, "After all, Sheik has been scouting the area for a while now."

Really? Zelda glanced at Palautana who also looked surprised, "Lucina, what's your-," Mario started to say when someone yelled, "It's a trap!" startling everyone into turning around and facing a green hedgehog in an apple green vest, she was breathing hard as she wearily pointed behind her, "Under… Attack… Help…Needed." She gasped,

"Who are you?" Falco asked, the hedgehog shook her head wheezing, "Jewel. But right now…. Danger." Then she vanished in a cloud of numbers.

"Everyone-," Link started to say when someone in the far back raised their hand, at first Zelda assumed it was Rosalina since she had changed into her white and red tipped dress, but when the figure spoke, the voice was empty. Full of nothingness.

"How upset will everyone be," the figure- no, man asked, "To find that Rosalina was attacked by the Ice Climbers and turned into a trophy." The crowd split apart revealing a man with long white hair that covered an eye and a loose red and white robe.

Zero readied her gun and fired, Zelda gasped in surprise when the man didn't even blink, he merely looked ahead, a blank expression on his face, "I suppose the answer is very, upset." The man mused.

"Who are you!?" Zero demanded, backing up with the crowd as they tried to distance themselves from the strange man, "I, am Zero." He announced, although his voice was still empty, "Leader of the Dark Matter." He took a clumsily step forward and looked at Kirby who glared at him.

"Hey! You can't be Zero!" Samus argued, Zero with white hair looked up at Samus then slowly focused on Zero with a gun, "Is it because she too, is named Zero? I sense anger."

"Yes, that's my name!" Zero snapped, firing another shot at the creepy man, "Well, that can be fixed." He glanced behind him and said, "02 destroy her."

"As you wish." A man who looked similar to the first man appeared floating above him. A grey bandage covering one eye while he glared down at Zero with his puffy good eye, "Of course, a pathic human would dare copy my Master's name." 02 spat, before anyone could react a circle of crystals appeared around Zero and sliced through her. Knocking her to the ground as a trophy.

"Scatter!" Link ordered, Zelda yelped and dived to the side, grabbing someone as they avoided a blast of ice. "Ah-ah!" a voice teased, Zelda looked up to see a woman in a white multicolored robe, hovering above them, "You aren't going anywhere!" Miracle teased.

"Farore's wind!" Zelda yelped, closing her eyes and picturing the forest while a gust of wind wrapped around her. Miracle pouted and glanced around the room, Kirby and Metaknight had foolishly stayed behind, attempting to fight off her Masters while Scourge happily pounded Sonic into the dirt.

"I love the smell of destruction in the morning!" Miracle chirped. "Stop being happy." Zero ordered.

"Sorry master…"

* * *

"Are you alright?"

"I believe so." Peach looked around then back at Zelda, "Where are we?"

"Somewhere in the woods." Zelda replied, she looked around a bush and stood up, "Come on, we need to regroup in order to defend ourselves." Peach shakily nodded and followed her. They carefully stepped around tree branches and bushes, trying not to make a sound as they headed for the main area of the park. The entire time Peach could have sworn that people were laughing from the shadows.

Mocking them and their hopeless situation.

"Um… Zelda," Zelda glanced behind her and slowed, "What is it Peach?"

"What in the world is that beeping sound?" Peach asked. Zelda frowned and looked around, "It sounds like…" she stiffened and hissed, "Mines." Peach paled and tried not to move as the beeping seemed to pound in her ears, "Huh, looks like you do remember the sound of bombs." A voice said.

"Hard to forget Snake." Zelda retorted, Peach tried to look around but Snake entered her field of vision, "Now, now." Snake warned a smirk curling on his lips, "One wrong move Princesses, and you'll be blown to high heaven."

Peach frowned, not understanding the joke while Zelda growled and lit her hand with Din's fire, Snake raised an eyebrow in surprise but didn't say anything, instead, he pulled out a small bomb and tossed it at their feet. "Have fun." Snake said, "I have a rat to sniff out."

"What rat?" Peach asked, "Is it Mouser?"

"Uh… No, it's green, annoying and has weird green and black hand warmers." Snake replied, and with that he melted into the forest, the only sign of him ever being there was the bomb.

"I wonder why he's attacking that Jewel person." Zelda mumbled, Peach shrugged and studied the bomb, "Maybe he wants her over for a tea party?" Peach suggested, Zelda threw her a 'your joking, right?' look and grabbed her arm, teleporting them out of harm's way.

"Come on. If Snake is ditching the battlefield, then there has to be a good reason!" Zelda said. Peach nodded in agreement and followed her.

* * *

"PK Love!"

Gannondorf growled softly and sidestepped, avoiding the giant laser beam of pink magic, "Ready to give up?" a boy who looked similar to Lucas taunted, "How about you shut up?" Ganondorf retorted, he dove forward for a choke attack but he was blasted by a bolt of lightning, "Stay away from my brother!" Lucas snapped.

"You have a brother?" Mario questioned, he hurled a fireball at Lucas who jumped out of the way.

"Why is everyone surprised about this?" Lucas's brother grumbled. Lucas shrugged and used PK Freeze, "I guess it's because you were dead for a while Claus."

"Oh lovely," Gannondorf grumbled, "A Redead."

"A what now?" Claus questioned, Mario sprinted forward yelling, "None of your business!" and planting a well time punch to Claus's face, Gannondorf raised his eyebrow in surprise, apparently, Luigi's trophy attack had left the plumber more unhinged that he thought. Oh well.

Now was the time to fight, not stand around. Although he really wished that he had his sword and not just his magic…

"PK Love!" Lucas yelled, forcing Gannondorf to roll to the side and charge forward, "Gotcha!" Gannondorf sneered, Lucas sqruimed in his grasp and sent him a glare full of malice, something that didn't belong in the usually timid boy's eyes.

"Leave my brother alone!" Claus yelled, "PK Love!"

"Really? You're going to risk hurting your own brother?" Gannondorf taunted, all to prepared to use Lucas as a human shield, "No," Claus said, a smirk on his face. Gannondorf winched as the laser blasted off of Lucas then slammed into a tree, which promptly fell over.

"I'm going to use him as a deflector!"

Gannondorf cursed and dropped Lucas before Claus could try again, "Mario, how about you do us all a favor and start being helpful!" Gannondorf snapped, Mario glared at him and blasted Claus with F.L.U.D.D knocking him into a bush.

"Hey Ganny!" Lucas taunted, Gannondorf glared down at the child and quickly found himself flying in the air, "Lamest villain ever!" Lucas yelled as Gannondorf felt his body stiffen and become solid stone, "I really wanted my sword." Were Gannondorf's last words before he was officially, out of the game.

"Huh, that was easier than I thought." Claus mused, he crawled out of the bush and dusted himself off, ignoring Mario completely as he joined Lucas's side, "Now what?" Claus asked.

"We could see what Wolf is doing." Lucas suggested.

"Hey wait!" Lucas and Claus turned, and waved hello at Mario, who was looking ready to set the entire park on fire, "If you forgot, we're still fighting!" Mario growled.

"Yea, but we weren't fighting you." Lucas deadpanned, Claus nodded in agreement and grinned, "Have fun with the grand finale!" and started to head for the center of the park.

"Grand… Finale?" Mario repeated, not looking the sounds of that. With a sigh, he adjusted his cap and looked around the woods, "Does Ta want survivors then? For this 'grand finale'?" Mario wondered. If he did, then that would make some of the fighting easier, some. Those who were chosen for this grand finale could put themselves in the line of fire. Or something.

Mario frowned and headed into the woods, war strategies were never his forte, he was an action person going off of what little he knew to stop the bad guy. But this entire mess was a game of cat and mouse, they were being puppeteer along and Mario was stuck in the background, unable to help plan ahead, only able to work in the moment.

"What are you doing?!" Mario looked up and winched as Dark Pit slammed into Shulk with his electroshock arm, what was going on?

"Hey! Knock it off you two!" Mario ordered, breaking into a sprint to prevent the argument from spiraling out of control. Dark Pit looked up, a grim face of determination etched into his eyes. "Stay out of the way Mario." Dark Pit ordered, "Or I won't hesitate to knock you out."

Mario frowned and slowed down, "What are on earth are you talking about! Ta's the enemy here! Not Shulk!"

"What about Lucina?" Marth asked, Mario was about to look at Marth in disbelief when Lucina beat him too it, "Marth you cannot be-," it happened so fast that Mario must have been dreaming, one moment Lucina was scowling at the Prince of Fire Emblem saying something, then with a swoosh she was frozen in stone, a blade through her chest.

"Lucina!" Shulk yelled, while Mario ran and punched Marth in the in face, "What's gotten into you!?" Mario demanded. Marth winched and gently touched the bruise on his check, "Huh, so this is what pain feels like." Marth mused.

"What?" Shulk stood up on wobbly legs and glared at Marth, "What's going on?"

Marth shoved Mario off of him and grinned at Shulk, "Why Monado boy! I thought you would remember me!" he pouted and placed a hand over his heart, "That stings."

"Stop fooling around." Dark Pit growled, "I thought you wanted this to be over."

"True, true." Marth said, he stood up and clumsily held his sword, the tip pointing at Shulk's chest, Shulk backed up slightly and prepared his own sword. "For the last time, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" Mario demanded, Dark Pit glared at him and snapped, "Unlike you, I'm doing something worthwhile."

"Backstabbing your friend is worthwhile?" Shulk questioned.

"I have no friends." Dark Pit snarled, "And unlike you idiots, I don't have the pleasure of only looking out for myself."

"What?" Mario and Shulk exchanged baffled looks, Marth happily stepped forward and placed a hand on Dark Pit's shoulder, Dark Pit flinched but didn't dare shake him off. "You see, Dark Pit and Pit are connected." Marth explained, "If one birdie goes down, the other follows."

"But what does Marth have to do with this?" Shulk questioned. Marth's grin grew wider as Dark Pit spat, "Are you really that dense?! He's being controlled!"

"By the all mighty Tabuu!" Marth chirped.

"Ta who now?" Shulk questioned, while Mario paled, everything vaguely clicking into place, Marth snickered and taunted, "Bet you wished you knew this ages ago Mario, after all. Who else would have a big enough motive and power to bring back so many forgotten characters?"

"That's impossible!" Mario argued, "You can't be Tabuu! You're in Brawl!" Marth laughed and spun his sword in a circle, "Oh Mario, you really understand nothing about this world." He grinned and locked eyes with Mario, "You see, Nintendo, the wonderful yet surprisingly deaf company that created this whole tournament, put in an army of new characters and created HD stages and terrible custom stage parts."

"That stages aren't that bad!" Shulk protested, then he thought about that and grumbled, "Okay, so almost all the custom stages the owners make are a bit broken. And annoying, but still!"

Marth or rather Tabuu rolled his eyes and continued, "But despite the new shiny stages you guys get to fight on, they still have hints of Brawl's data! Including Ridely, one of the many bosses of, you guessed it! Brawl!"

Mario took a step back as Tabuu took a step forward his motions becoming more animated as he kept talking, "It wasn't that hard to find the delated and beta data that Nintendo placed in Smash 4 for awakening the forgotten characters from Brawl, once I got a handle on the broken data I made a kingdom for everyone forgotten! Using the past stages of Melee to bring those cute little Pichus back!"

"So you got a new home." Shulk said, "Why come after us!?"

"Because, I want revenge." Tabuu simply said, "I'm a bit of a control freak-,"

"A bit?" Dark Pit questioned, Tabuu ignored him and kept talking, "and my awesome plan from last game didn't work out how I wanted to, like now, I was trapped in a world called Subspace, but wanted to invade the world known as Smash, that failed of course."

"Thank god." Mario muttered, Tabuu glared at him and stabbed the tree behind him, his cheerful facade quickly being replaced by an ugly sneer that did not belong on Marth's face.

"Oh and course, I can't forget about those _gods_ of yours," Tabuu sneered, "The only people preventing this world from falling apart are Master Hand and Crazy Hand, but once I get rid of them, well…" the sneer vanished and was replaced with a cheerful smile as Tabuu sang, "Bye-Bye Smash 4~!" and spun in a little circle.

"Which isn't going to happen if you don't hurry up and move!" Dark Pit snapped, Tabuu pouted and grumbled, "Well excuse me if I wanted to rub salt in the wound, and besides, I thought you wanted to stop and destroy Lady angle of laser beams?" Dark Pit scowled but said nothing.

"You won't get any with this!" Mario said. Tabuu groaned and waved his hand in a bored circle, "Really. What is with you heroes and saying that line? It's old! And, if I remember correctly, you needed the help of a random speed racer in order to save the day."

Tabuu grinned and folded his arms, "And Master Hand and Crazy Hand's summoned hero isn't going to last long, my forces are wiping out her hiding spot while we speak. So, Ta-ta!" and with that, Tabuu left with a flourish of Marth's cape.

Dark Pit sent Shulk and Mario a glare before he followed Tabuu, heading for the 2-player challenge arena.

"What are we going to do?" Shulk asked, Mario fixed his hat and said, "Warn the others and get rid of these forgotten soldiers.

* * *

"Alright. This has gone on far enough!" Blue declared, he stopped and glared at the forest surrounding them, Palautena and Phoenix nodded in agreement, after they had been forced to scatter, the Four Swords Trio, Green, Palautena and Phoenix had entered the woods, hoping for a slight edge over their attackers.

But the moment they entered the heart of the forest Shadow and Palatena had sensed some dark magic, preventing them from leaving. Whoever had put the spell in place seemed to have a sense of humor since the sign kept changing every time they tried to find the exit.

The first sign had read, 'Welcome to the forest maze! :D' then, 'Getting tired yet?' and finally, 'Death to angles! :D' after Palautena tried to blast a tree with light magic.

"This is pointless." Vio grumbled, "Whoever's here won't let us leave." Toon and Red nodded in agreement, "I wonder why though." Shadow mused, "Everyone else was, attack first toy later. But this guy…" Shadow trailed off and leaned against a tree, Blue try to do the same but fell through the tree.

"Oh great!" Blue snapped, "The trees are made out of shadows! Peachy! Just peachy!"

"And there's that lovely temper of yours." A voice drawled. Shadow looked up and blinked at Blue, who was casually resting on a tree branch, eyeing the group with slight interest.

"Why are there two blues?" Red asked, slowly inching toward Vio who was preparing his borrowed bow, the phony Blue raised an eyebrow and frowned slightly, "Really? Are you that forgetful?" Blue pulled out the Skull hammer and tapped his foot, "Here's an idea! How about we've never meet you before!"

The phony Blue frowned and glanced down at the shadow covered floor, "It's official, they lost their minds Royal." Phoenix frowned and pulled out her spell tomb, "There are more of them?" Phoenix asked as Palautena readied her staff, "Apparently so." Palautena growled.

"Aww!" a voice cooed, they jumped and turned around, weapons at the ready as a second Red walked out of the shadows, a deranged grin fixed firmly on his face as he carried a rod with an ice cube attached, "The wittle angle's scared!" the fake Red cooed, "I think she's needs a nap."

"Is anyone getting the crazy vibe for this guy?" Toon asked. "Actually, he's quiet sane at the moment." Toon spun around and attacked only to miss a second Vio who laughed and flipped backwards, easily landing on his pegasus boots, "Geez Green! You've gotten-," the phony Vio started to say when he noticed something, "Whoa! There are two Breeze's!?" phony Vio exclaimed.

"Breeze?" Toon questioned, "I'm Toon Link!"

The phony Red rolled his eyes and mocked, "And I'm the cry baby Red. Big whoop!" Red frowned and held up his sword, "I am not a cry baby!"

"Are too!" the phony Red screeched, startling Red. Shadow frowned and pulled out his out sword, "Alright, who are you guys?" he demanded, "No more fooling around!" the phony Vio blinked in surprise and allowed his disguise to melt away.

Revealing a boy who looked almost exactly like Shadow, only his tunic was a deep royal purple and his bang was styled different, "Uh, hello? It's us, your brothers." The phony Vio said.

"You have brothers?" Phoenix asked, "What? No!" Shadow argued, "There's only one shadow and that's me!" the phony Vio frowned, and folded his arms, "So that Ta guy _was_ right."

"Apparently so." The phony Blue sighed, "And here I was, hoping that something easy would come along." The colors melted away, revealing _another_ boy who looked like Shadow, only his tunic was a navy blue and his bang was choppier.

"Come Crimson." The boy in the royal purple tunic said, "Might as well drop the disguise." Crimson grinned and happily watched the colors melt off, revealing a crimson red tunic and a slightly neater bang.

"Finally!" Crimson exclaimed, "I HATE pure red." Royal rolled his eyes and glanced at up the boy in the navy tunic, "So are you going to be a snail today Navy or-,"

"Just because I prefer to take it slow and easy Royal," Navy said, sounding slightly annoyed with his look-alike, "Does not make a me a snail." Royal grinned and said, "Are too!" before he sprinted forward, "Scatter!" Vio ordered,

Royal laughed and quickly changed course, gunning for Vio who had jumped side ways to avoid the first attack, "And your still predicable!" Royal sneered, he slammed into Vio and rolled off him, bouncing back up with a grin, Navy rolled his eyes and jumped down, a poison purple snake whip curling around his arm, "Let's end this quickly." Navy said with a small smirk.

"In your dreams phony!" Blue roared, he lunged forward with the Skull Hammer, which Navy easily stole with the help of his whip, "Nagi, why don't you teach Blue a little lesson about being rash?" Navy asked, the snake whip jumped to life and latched onto Blue's arm, "Ow! Poison fangs! Poison fangs!" Blue yelped as Navy hurled him into a tree.

"Don't worry Blue!" Toon said, pulling out his boomerang, "I got ya covered!" he hurled it at Navy who merely snapped his fingers and summoned an onslaught of thunder bolts, each blast blinding them. Shadow winched and prepared for the light to hurt him, but instead felt the soothing rush of darkness engulf him with each blast.

"Crimson! Aim for Red's ankle!" Royal yelled, Crimson laughed and said, "On it!" Shadow opened his eyes, winching from the bright blasts of light and fired a bolt of shadow magic at Crimson who was blasting Red with ice magic, "Hey!" Crimson yelped as he was sent tumbling into a tree, "That was… weaker." Crimson realized, he sat up and frowned at Shadow, "Are you okay Shadow? You look… Pale."

Shadow grimaced since he was still recovering from that dumb angle blast but managed to sneer, "Since when would you care? You're the enemy." Crimson recoiled slightly, a look of hurt briefly replacing his unsure smile, it quickly vanished when Phoenix finally recovered and yelled, "Arcfire!" firing a fireball at Royal.

"Hey!" Crimson snarled, "I'M! The only person allowed to set fire to everything!" Royal laughed as the fire dissipated and spun on his heel, avoiding a couple arrows from Vio, "Careful fire bird! Crimson means business!"

Crimson laughed and set his hands aflame, "THIS! Is how you set a fire!" he waved his hands, summoning a wall of fire that surrounded Phoenix, "Elf wind!" Phoenix yelled, Crimson pouted slightly but quickly recovered, blasting Phoenix mid-air with his Ice rod, "Freeze birdie freeze!"

"Shut up you psycho-path!" Shadow yelled, summoning a giant bomb and hurling it at Crimson. Crimson laughed and caught it with ease, "My turn!" Crimson chirped, happily hurling the bomb at Palautena who was firing blasts of light at Navy who was blocking them with his shield, "KA-Boom!" Crimson screeched, laughing as it slammed into Palautena, exploded and sent her skidding along the grass.

"And there goes the Angle." Royal said,

"So uh, anyone have a plan?" Toon asked, he ducked as Royal dashed past him, sword swinging, "Besides getting beat up!?" Navy chuckled and stroked Nagi, "Getting beat up is a wonderful plan for you four."

"Is not!" Red argued, Blue nodded in agreement and tried to attack Navy with his sword, only to get it stolen by Nagi, "Are you just going to steal every weapon I have?!" Blue demanded.

Navy smirked and said, "Why yes, that was what I was aiming for." Royal happily jumped on Blue's head and landed on a tree branch, "Come on! We at least ten minutes before Breeze gets out!" he spread his arms and chanted something in a different language, it sounded vaguely familiar to Shadow, but he was busy fending off Crimson who seemed determent to hack Red to pieces to pin-point where he heard it before.

"Aim for Red's ankle Crimmy!" Royal advised then he jumped down and landed on Vio who was fighting against Navy, or trying to since Nagi would lash out and try to steal his bow, "So how that headache of yours Vio?" Royal taunted, slamming the flat edge of his blade down on Vio's head, Vio stifled a yelp of pain and collapsed, clutching his head.

"Hm, gonna need some ice for that." Royal mused, Navy rolled his eyes and fired a bolt of lightning at Phoenix, she rolled out of the way and yelled "Thunder!" Royal yelped and shadowy wall sprang out of the ground, "Geez! I thought you were a fire bird! Not a spark bird!" Royal joked.

"Who cares!" Crimson yelled, Shadow stood up and looked around, trying to figure out who to attack, the entire battle was a blur of action, Palautena was using a stick to battle Navy who was slowly walking toward her, sword in hand while Blue and Toon were trying to slow down Royal who was happily creating platforms to jump on and strike from above. Vio was on the ground, gritting his teeth as he waited for his concussion to fade while Phoenix attempted to give back up.

Shadow glanced behind him to see how Red was doing when he felt something invisible stomped hard on his ankle. Shadow fell to the ground stifling a scream as the pressure increased.

"About time!" Royal exclaimed, Shadow looked at Red and bit his tongue when he saw Crimson gleefully stepping on Red's sprained ankle, "What did you do?" Blue demanded, then he winched as bit his sleeve, resisting the urge to scream in pain. Royal jumped off his latest platform and landed beside Vio, "You guys remember that random incantation I said?" Royal asked.

Palautena grimaced, "It was a curse…?" Navy nodded and lowered his sword, "Just because we all have Dark Magic doesn't mean that we use it the same way." He folded his arms behind his back and smirked down at Blue, "Apparently that temper of yours blocked out some important facts from our last fight."

"What fight?!" Blue snapped, "We just met you guys today!" Navy frowned slightly while Royal blinked in surprise, "Something's not right…" Crimson nodded in agreement and leaned back, allowing them all to breath without the need to scream.

Vio sat up slightly and growled, "Of course something's not right! The fact that we knew nothing of you maniacs didn't send off an alarm?!" Toon managed a weak laugh and suggested, "I guess they aren't the only ones with headaches."

Royal scratched his head and started to bounce on his heels muttering something under his breath. Shadow sat up and glared at Crimson who was giggling at Red's silent tears, "Well, this is going nowhere." Navy deiced with a sigh, "What did that butterfly man want us to do again?"

"He wanted some people to be turned into statues." Crimson supplied, he grinned over at Phoenix who flinched at the murder in his eyes, "Can we get rid of the bird girl?"

"I am not a bird girl!" Phoenix spat, Crimson snickered and stomped on Red's ankle, Shadow bent over biting his tongue to repress the screams while Phoenix and Palautena openly screamed.

Royal jumped and glared at Crimson who was cackling at their pain, "Geez Crimmy! Warn me next time you do that!" Crimson scowled and snapped, "Stop calling me that!" Royal stuck his tongue out and picked Vio up by his tunic, "So you don't remember being stranded on a boat for who knows how long book-worm?" Royal questioned, "Or destroying us at the Wind Palace?"

"I'd think I would remember you three." Vio snapped, he winched and bit his lip. The pain was unbearable, and Crimson's maddening laughter wasn't helping his mood.

"Well isn't this fun." Royal said, he dropped Vio and kicked him hard in the gut, causing them all to double over in pain, Royal turned to Navy and Crimson and growled, "They forgot about us! Completely!"

"Wow. That Hand guy must be a pro at making people forget." Crimson mused, lightening up on Red's ankle. Navy frowned and glared down at Blue who was attempting to pick up his sword, "Is this true?"

Shadow stood up and leaned against a tree, attracting Royal and Navy's attention, "Hey Shadow, you should really sit down." Royal advised, Shadow blinked and tried to say something when Royal magically appeared beside him and gently pushed him back to ground. Shadow flinched and stood back up. "Don't. Touch me!" Shadow snarled.

Royal took a step back in surprise while Crimson grumbled, "Oh goodie, He was forced to form an alliance with the goodie two shoes parade." Navy frowned as if suspecting something wasn't right but he didn't get a chance to speak since Shadow attacked Royal with a bolt of dark magic.

Royal yelped and rolled around on the ground to put out the leftover sparks of magic, "Ow! Not cool bro!" Royal snapped, he sat up and glared at Shadow who glared right back at him, "Don't call me that!" Shadow snarled, "I'm not your brother nut-jobs!"

"Yes you are." Crimson said, Shadow glared at him and was slightly pleased to see Crimson lean back in slight fear, "Yea right! I think I'd remember three other mes' walking out of the Dark Mirror!"

Crimson nervously laughed and looked at Royal who looked crestfallen, "Why isn't he making sense…?" Royal glanced at Crimson and mumbled, "He…He Doesn't remember us."

Navy blinked in surprise and repeated, "Doesn't remember us?" before he looked at Shadow, "Is this a prank? If so, it's a pretty good one."

"I am not pranking you! We don't remember you! And I don't want to be related to you freaks!" Shadow summoned a bomb and bounced it in his hand, daring them to make a move. He was surprised to see the look of shock and hurt on their face as they slowly backed away from Shadow.

"I don't like this Royal." Crimson whimpered, the insane glint fading, being replaced by denial and confusion, Royal nodded in agreement while Navy stroked Nagi who seemed to be glaring at Shadow with its ruby red eyes.

"Heavenly light!" Shadow jumped and prepared for pain when he realized that Palutena wasn't aiming for him, he winched at the dual screams of, "Crimson!" then glared at Palautena, "Warn someone next time!" Shadow snapped.

Palautena ignored him and pointed her staff at Navy and Royal, who were shooting death glares at her while they comforted Crimson, who was whimpering in pain, "Leave, before I destroy all three of you." Palatuena warned, Royal picked up Crimson and gave her a long, hard look before he glanced at Navy who was practically strangling Nagi.

"Ha!" Blue crowed, "Not so tough now are-," BLAM!

Shadow winched as Blue was hit by a bolt of lightning, "Shoulda kept your mouth shut." Toon grumbled as Blue twitched on the forest floor, Shadow bit back a laugh while Vio shook his head.

"Is he going to be okay?" Red asked, Royal hesitated before he answered Red, "Yea, he'll be fine. Feathers for brain won't." Shadow frowned and followed Royal's gaze and cringed at Navy, who was looking directly at Palatuena, "Willing to risk your life?" Palatuena questioned, she aimed her staff and tried to say something else when a storm of lightning bolts slammed into her. Not stopping until she was smoking statue.

Royal chuckled nervously as Navy relaxed slightly and grumbled, "Let's retreat for now." Shadow growled and was about to throw the bomb at him when someone yelled, "Sneak attack of the boomeranged!" and smacked Navy in the head.

"Really?!" Royal exclaimed, "Now you show up?!" Shadow glared at the owner of the boomerang ready to fight and blinked in surprise when he saw a second Toon, wearing a lobster long shirt and orange leggings, his hair was a mess and surprisingly hat-less.

"Well, your knots were pretty easy to figure out, I just wanted to look around for a bit to see the sights." The second Toon said, he frowned slightly as he added, "But then Vaati caught me, nearly sent me flying into next week and I came over here." He glanced at the still smoking statue and whistled. A shaky grin appearing on his face, "So THAT'S what happens when Navy loses his temper!"

"Oh shut up." Navy grumbled, he glared at the boy before he melted into the shadows.

Royal glared at Shadow before he adjusted Crimson and said, "Feel free to beat these jerks into the ground Breeze, they don't remember us." Breeze blinked in surprise and made a T-symbol with his hands, "Whoa-whoa-whoa! Time out!" he looked at Shadow in disbelief, "Dude, you don't remember your own brothers?" then he looked at Red who was trying to hide behind a tree, "Or you and Crimson beating me a to pulp in that Earth Temple?"

"What Earth temple?!" Blue demanded, "Is this other place you four went that didn't exist or something!?" Breeze chuckled and glanced at Toon, "And you don't- wait. Why does he look like me?" Royal shrugged and grumbled, "Who knows and or cares, I thought he was another time line version but you guys have the same weapon."

Breeze blinked and ran a hand through his hair, "Wow. This just went from crazy to crazier." Crimson sat up slightly and said, "You're still grinning."

"Really?" Breeze frowned slightly, then grinned, "Oh! Know something that can make you guys remember!" Shadow, Red, Blue and Vio shared looks of disbelief while Toon asked, "Why does he look like me?"

Breeze ignored Toon and said, "You guys remember the living statue? And how everyone basically freaked out except me?" they shook their heads no while Royal snickered, "Vio accused me of drugging him somehow."

"What statue?" Red questioned, "It sounds interesting." Breeze nodded in agreement and was about to say more when they heard someone approaching, "Oh great." Royal grumbled, "A man in red with a weirdo carrying a giant sword." He looked at Breeze and said, "Have fun, these guys are attack first talk later." And disappeared into the shadows with Crimson in tow.

"Wait really?" Breeze looked around and frowned at the glares he was receiving, "Not cool dudes." Breeze said, "Not cool."

"Says the kid on the bad guy's side!" Blue snapped, Shulk nodded in agreement and pulled out his Monado sword, "We've already been betrayed," Shulk said, "Now is the time for action! Not talking."

Breeze hesitated but pulled out his own sword and shield, "No prob dude, I get where you're coming from." He glanced sadly at the Four Swords group before he braced himself, "Team attack!" Phoenix yelled, She and Mario summoned fireballs and hurled it at Breeze who nimbly side stepped and blocked Shulk's Monado blade, "Slam dunk!" Blue yelled.

Breeze yelped and rolled out of the way, "Wow! You really are good with a hammer!" Breeze noticed, Blue glared at him while Toon and Shadow lunged forward, Breeze blocked and back flipped, trying to get some run to counter-attack.

But Mario and Phoenix were dead set on forcing him to move, "Alright, maybe taking on 8 people at once was a bad idea." Breeze deiced, "Really? What gave you that idea?" Vio dryly asked, Breeze grinned and shrugged, "Just an idea."

"This is the Monado's power!" Shulk yelled, attempting to use an air slash on Breeze, Breeze cringed as he was sent flying in the air and then into a tree, "Need… to… focus." Breeze grunted as he sat up and pulled out a Bomb Bag.

"Lay off the fire power guys." Vio warned, as Breeze threw a couple at Mario and Phoenix, they jumped back and watched the bombs blink red before blowing up.

"Blue!" Toon yelled, Blue nodded and leapt forward, Skull Hammer already in motion, "Please work!" Breeze prayed as he prepared to do a spin attack, Shadow frowned at the sudden glow and crackle of energy surrounding Breeze's sword but took a wary step back.

"Is that the-," Toon started when Breeze spun, yelling as he whipped around like a top, somehow managing to control his momentum as he slammed into Blue, Shulk, Mario and Phoenix, sending them crashing into trees.

"Um, what was that?" Red questioned, Shadow glanced behind him and stifled a laugh as Red hid behind a tree, rubbing his probably broken ankle, "That was the Hurricane spin." Toon explained, he looked at Breeze in shock as the boy recovered from his dizzy spell, "Where did you learn that from?"

Breeze looked up and rubbed his head, "From my Grandfather, Orca." Mario sat up and looked at Toon, "I'm guessing you know this Hurricane spin as well Toon?" Toon looked at Mario in disbelief, "Know it? I'm probably the only person who learned it! Not even Orca could perform it!"

"Hey!" Breeze said, Shadow glanced at Breeze and face-palmed as Breeze finished with a huge grin, "Our grandfather's share the same name! Cool!"

"No! Not cool!" Toon yelled, "Not cool at all!"

"Woah, chill dude. I'm just trying to break the unfriendly ice." Breeze said, putting is hands up in a calm down gesture. Shadow snapped his fingers and summoned a giant bomb, "Here, this will help!" Breeze looked at him in disbelief and teased, "Yea, a giant bomb solves everything."

"It does!" Shadow argued as he hurled the bomb at Breeze, he blinked in surprise as Breeze easily caught it and hurled it at Shulk, "Might wanna run dude!" Breeze advised as the bomb blinked a dangerous red.

"Okay, that's three guys to many, that have been able to catch my bomb." Shadow grumbled, Breeze snickered and put his sword away, "Well, as much as I love to stay and be everyone's training dummy, the great and annoying Vaati summons me." He glared down at a purple glowing stone and sprinted away yelling over his shoulder, "Hope we can talk later dudes! Peace!"

"Okay. That was weird." Blue said, Shulk and Phoenix nodded in agreement, "Forget weird." Mario said he stopped dusting off his overalls and gave them a grim frown, "Tabuu's back, and he's found the location of whoever was helping us before."

"You mean barely helping us." Blue grumbled,

"Hey! I resent that comment!" they jumped as Emerl appeared out of nowhere, his arms folded in an angry gesture, "Just for that comment, I shall not be the awesome Squigly or her awesome partner Fukua!" Emerl said.

"Okaaay then?" Shulk said, unsure how to reply, Emerl shook his head and said, "Anyway, Tabuu's fighting the Hands-,"

"Is there any way we can break up the fight?" Phoenix interrupted, Emerl shook his head no, "There toast, but I do know a way to save them. Anyway." Emerl turned to Mario saying, "You need to regroup your troops, the Dark Matter trio are currently fighting Pikachu and Link to a pulp while Zelda and Peach are being stalked by a cranky Wolf and maybe Snake, they took a ten-minute break from blowing up my front door."

"Great, but about the three siblings of doom and some Breeze weirdo?" Shadow asked, Emerl tiled his head, "Huh?"

"We were attacked by some boys, named Crimson, Royal, Navy and Breeze." Vio explained, "They claimed to have met us somehow." Emerl thought about this before he stomped his foot in anger and growled, "He is so dead!" and disappeared.

"…Anyone else lost?" Shulk questioned, Vio sat up and groaned, "This whole event is giving me a headache."

* * *

"You know." Vaati mused, "I excepted this to be harder." Zero and Miracle nodded in agreement, "Oh well!" Miracle chirped, she sent Kirby a wicked smile and lit her hands with fire, "At least Kirby put up a fight."

Zero nodded in agreement and nudged Doctor Mario's trophy with his foot, "Of course he did. He's the annoying puffball."

Vaati smirked and slammed Lady into a wall, turning her into a trophy, "Come on, Tabuu wants us to help the others after we're done cleaning up the trash." Vaati reminded them.

02 nodded his head and summoned his halo, "I thought Hammer and Glacier were taking care of that." Miracle muttered, she ducked as Pikachu tried to tackle her and giggled, "Oh well!"

"Having a nice chit-chat?" Link growled,

"A very nice one!" Miracle giggled, she winched under 02 and Zero's disapproving glares and sulked over to the corner, "Didn't Tabuu want certain people left alone?" 02 questioned he lazily tossed his halo at Kirby who tiredly rolled out of the way.

"Yes." Zero said, "He wanted Kirby and Link, however, I don't think Kirby would be practically to his plan." Link paled and tried to stand up, but the pain forced him to stop and lean against the wall, he gritted his teeth as 02 finished Kirby off with a frown, "Finally." 02 muttered.

"Samus, can you stand?" Link asked, Samus's screen dimmed slightly as she replied, "N-no… Syste-m d-#3amaged." And the robot slumped.

"Well this is peachy." Link grumbled as the four villains studied him with smug satisfaction. He had entered the destroyed library with the Pikachu squad, Samus and Kirby. But only he, Samus and Pikachu were the only ones standing. The Spark Squad had happily abandoned them saying something about needing to electrocute someone before leaving.

Link paled slightly as Vaati lifted up a giant purple and black gun with his wind magic, "I think you need a little rest." Vaati mused he aimed the gun and was about to fire when someone yelled, "Come here!" and yanked Vaati backwards.

"Hey!" Vaati yelled, he spun around and glowered at the person who had grabbed him, then frowned as he studied the light blue skinned girl with vivid purple hair and a dragon like snake coiled around her, seemly coming from her head.

"What?" Vaati questioned, the he yelped as the girl launched into a combo, sending Vaati flying into the and slamming him back down with the help of her snake, "What goes down… must come up?" the girl questioned as she picked up her skirt and kicked Vaati into a freshly dug grave which appeared out of nowhere.

Vaati fell inside, disappeared then reappeared inside a coffin which fell out of the sky and broke upon impact. "Well…" Zero said, "This is interesting." They watched as the girl repeated her combo and finished Vaati off, before focusing on 02 who blinked in surprise.

"One and two…" the girl started to count, the snake's tail starting to spin and glow a rapid pink as she hopped forward, 02 took a step back as the girl stopped and posed, the snake's tail turning into a microphone as she sang.

"Ugh, singing is annoying." 02 started to say when a glowing note appeared and bounced him back, "I knew singing was bad." Zero mused as the girl darted forward and crouched, allowing to snake's tail to enter the ground, "Hallowed ground!" the snake declared as ocean like vines sprang in and out of the ground, bouncing 02 even higher in the air.

"This is getting annoying." 02 grumbled as the girl sprinted forward, 02 winched and blocked, before he attacked with his halo, knocking the girl back a little, "Now's your chance." Zero advised, although he seemed bored with the fight all together.

"Right." 02 said, he summoned a couple crystals and fired lasers at the girl, the girl's snake curled into a shield and blocked most of the attacks. 02 merely frowned and tried for a more physical attack and hurled his halo having it spin around the girl in a circle, slicing into her before it returned.

"See you soon!~" the girl said, falling backwards into a grave as a second girl flew out of the sky, slamming into 02 and launching into a combo, "This is annoying!" 02 declared as the second girl's hair formed a drill and slammed into 02,

"~We're gonna get you~," the girl sang, turning her back on 02 with a smirk, 02 blinked and froze as a shadow version of the girl slammed into with a sliding attack, Link blinked as his vision darkened for a moment then returned to normal, only 02 was lying on the ground, unable to stand.

Zero frowned and studied the girl with dark skin and living green hair, "Who are you?" Zero questioned, the girl ignored his question and said, "Surprise!" firing a ball of green glowing light at Zero, Zero flinched and stumbled back, allowing the girl to dart forward and pin him in a combo, not letting him get up for a second.

"I give up." Zero groaned once the girl finally let him stand. Miracle gawked at the girl in horror and fidgeted, unsure what to do, "It's over." The girl said, she lied down and rested her head on her hands as her hair dug into the ground, forming active drills.

"Wah-?" Miracle questioned while Link backed up against the wall, the two girls' fighting style was… different from his own, or any other smasher. They seemed to only move in two directions, forward and backwards, odd.

"I'm… Going to report to Tabuu." Miracle deiced, unsure what to next. She floated away, watching the girl with fearful eyes until she disappeared behind a bookcase.

"Well… That was helpful." Pikachu said. Link nodded and stood up, grunting in pain, "Yea, but now we have to worry about her attacking us." Pikachu frowned and nodded in agreement. They slowly inched away from the girl who quickly vanished, "Come on, we might as well see whose left." Link said, once the shock of the disappearing girl wore off. Pikachu numbly nodded in agreement and pointed to a pile of burnt books, "I know a short-cut to the train station, it's cramped, but it can cut our time in half."

"Anything's better than walking through the remains of that bomb." Link grumbled. They slowly made their way to the entrance, winching and muttering curses as their wounds made it impossible to do anything.

"We're here." Pikachu announced after a while of miserable crawling, Link opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief at the dim train station lights, he was about to join Pikachu when someone grunted, "This is impossible." Link froze and tried to peer around the potted plant Pikachu was hiding behind.

The voice sounded like Snake's, but Link couldn't be sure since a second gruff voice growled, "Maybe Zelda can break the magic." There was a muffled growl and a boy saying, "That sounds like a no."

Pikachu glanced back at Link and mouthed, "Snake, Wolf, Lucas, some other boy and Zelda are there." Link frowned and tried to ask something when the potted plant was shoved aside by a boy in dark purple, "You guy are really bad at hiding." The boy mused,

"Whose there Royal?" Snake questioned, Royal snapped his fingers and Link felt a force underneath him drag him out of the crawlspace and onto the cold tile floor, he tried to sit up but black ropes pinned him to the ground, forcing him to look up.

"Don't try to struggle," Royal advised, "It'll just make it worse." Link glared at him then up at Snake who was chuckling at Link's predicament, "Oh shut up." Link grumbled,

"Why should we." Wolf challenged, "The great hero of Twilight pinned down by a mere boy? Pathetic." Royal rolled his eyes and started to tap his foot, "Can we please resume blowing up the door and beating up electro man? I have places to be ya know!"

"Electro man?" Link questioned, he tried to look at Pikachu who was… purring?

"Well, if you've forgotten, we don't have a plan." Wolf snarled, Royal rolled his eyes and sank into the shadows, reappearing momentarily with Navy, "Well good thing I have one." Royal retorted, Navy sighed and stroked a snake like whip, "So I'll just stand here until Sparky shows up?"

"More or less." Royal replied, he sprinted forward and nimbly dodged a gun blast followed by several other, the rope pinning Link to the ground loosened enough for him to set up. Apparently, Sparky was a young man wearing a blue trench coat with blond hair tied in a braid. He had a gun and a look of determination as he stood in front of a green metal door.

"Let's see how you do against this!" Royal challenged, the man said nothing and merely fired at Royal again, Royal dodged and summoned two walls out of the shadow to smash the man into mush, the man sprinted forward and shouted something in Japanese, summoning a giant electric blade which shot forward, nearly hitting Royal dead on.

"You're pretty good with a gun." Royal noted, he summoned a platform and used it to fly out of the man's reach, "But without tagging someone with it, your electric powers are useless." Royal summoned a box around the man and stabbed downward, the man's eyes widened as he exploded mega man style.

"Easy." Royal mused, he glanced on the door and knocked on it, "Yeello? Anyone there?" when no one answered Royal shoved the door open and made a mock bow, "Game, set match." Navy snickered. Snake and Wolf glared at the two boys while Lucas and Claus merely shook their heads in disbelief, "Come on." Link looked up and gasped when he saw Popo and Nana exiting the train, "Tabuu's nearly done beating the hands." Popo said, Nana nodded in agreement and readied her hammer, "Let's finish off the summoner before she disappears."

"Really? You managed to put away Rosalina's trophy that fast?" Lucas questioned, Popo and Nana smirked and folded their arms, "Of course." Nana said, "She's a light weight, despite her height."

"Not that it helped." Popo noted.

"Of course not." Snake muttered, he faced the door and ordered, "Forward march men," Nana coughed forcing to Snake to hurriedly add, "And woman." Before they walked toward the door, Link tried to stand up but Navy shoved him back to the ground, "Sorry, you aren't going anywhere." Navy said. Link grunted and tried again only to kicked down even harder.

Navy sighed and shook his head, "You know, I have a really bad temper." Link gritted his teeth and tried again, "And? I'm not giving up until you and Tabuu are back where you belong!"

Navy laughed and Link saw his hand twitch, "You really just want to die, don't you?" Link sat up and growled at Navy who laughed and pulled out his sword, before he could do anything, there was a loud boom so powerful that Link could feel the shockwaves as he was slammed into the ground.

Navy joined him and winched as the resounding explosion, "What's going on?!" Pikachu yelped as the ground started to violently shake in time with the booms, "I think Tabuu destroyed the hands!" Navy yelled.

There was a final boom before it quieted down, the tremors slowing as well. Link sat up and rubbed his cut arms, the ropes gone.

"Link! The benches!" Pikachu yelped, Link looked up and paled as objects around them started to dissolve into ones and zeroes and floated up toward the destroyed ceiling.

"What's going on?" Zelda demanded, Link jumped, completely forgetting that Zelda had been bound and gagged by Snake and the others, she looked tired and covered in dust but otherwise okay.

"I think Tabuu just ended the hands." Link panted, Navy sat up and looked around before he disappeared into the shadows. Zelda stood up and stumbled toward them, "What happened to you two? You're a mess!" Zelda exclaimed once she was close enough to see the bruised and battered state of Link and Pikachu.

"We got beat up." Pikachu grumbled, "Also, I think Samus died."

"Great." Zelda grumbled, she knelt beside them and attempted to use her healing magic, "Ow!" Link yelped as Zelda magically healed a bad cut on his torso, Zelda glared at him and was about to scold him when there was a crackle of static before someone said, "Yello? Is this thing working?"

They looked up glared at the loudspeaker, "Well since I hear no complaints I'm going to say that it is! Muhaha!"

"Is that…" Pikachu started to ask when Link nodded, "Tabuu…"

"As you probably guessed, your pathetic protectors, Master Hand, Crazy Hand and some weirdo Master Core, have been destroyed, turning your world into a fragile glass vase." Tabuu paused and laughed, "Man! It feels good to get rid of the trash." Before he continued.

"Any way, I have deiced to give you all one last chance to redeem yourselves before I take over Smash 4," a screen appeared in front of them, showing a tournament bracket, "As you can see, I plan to have one final tournament, all the survivors versus my Army, if your team wins, then I'll repair the damages and never bother you again, if I win then. Go me! Ahhahaha!"

Pikachu growled and let loose a couple sparks as Zelda ran a hand through her hair.

"The first round shall begin tomorrow morning. You shall all board the super awesome train which just pulled into the station." Link glanced behind him and true to Tabuu's words a shadow purple train pulled into the station.

"And the fight shall continue from there." Tabuu finished he paused and added, "Also, the fights shall be by genre, example, Falco will be fighting Wolf since he is Star Fox and Shulk would be fighting Snake, since they are the only fighters from their world."

Link nearly bite his tongue at Tabuu chirped, "Ta-ta!" and the mike turned off. Zelda stood up and studied the green metal door which was fading away, "Maybe we can intercept them." Pikachu suggested, Zelda shook her head no and bit her lip, "Snake said they were going to be teleported back to their base once Tabuu finished his mission."

"So they'll leave without having to risk any more injuries." Link growled, he stood up and leaned on Zelda for support, "Come on, we might as well see the damages made."

"They got Peach." Zelda muttered, "I wasn't able to protect her." Link shook his head and limped toward the cafeteria, "It wasn't your fault, they had us outnumbered from the start." Pikachu nodded in agreement, giving his two cents, "Even if we did know how many people we would be facing, none of us excepted the sneak attacks or the outside battles."

Zelda bit her lip and nodded in agreement, "Link!" they looked up to see Phoenix limping toward them, a relived smile on her face, "Thank goodness you're okay!" Phoenix exclaimed. Link looked around and saw equally battered groups of remaining fighters.

"Is Doctor Mario okay?" Zelda asked, Link jumped as Shadow appeared beside them, looking frustrated, "No, the phonies got him." Shadow grumbled, he held up a medical kit and shook it, "This is the only med stuff left in the entire building."

"Phonies?" Pikachu questioned, Shadow nodded and stormed off to help patch up Falco who was grinning, like an idiot. Phoenix rubbed her arm and explained, "In the woods we were jumped by three Shadow look-alikes who seemed to be Red, Vio and Blue's shadows, or, that's what Shadow thinks. They took out Palautena and left us with someone called Breeze."

"Who looked exactly like me!" Toon added.

"So in other words, we're doomed." Pikachu deadpanned, Mario gritted his teeth but nodded in agreement, "Without Master Hand, this place will fall apart, we're stuck going to that tournament whether we like it or not."

Sonic joined them and managed a tired smile, "So? We beat them once. We can do it again." Link shook his head, "It would take a miracle to even get close to beating them."

"We lost." Zelda realized, "We were doomed from the very start."

* * *

 **DUN DUN DUN! The plot cards have been reveled! Did I catch anyone off guard with Ta being Tabuu? Anyone? I did manage to keep that a plot-twist right?... Meh. _**

 **Anyway, explanation time! :D Royal, Crimson and Navy are OC's for a Zelda Fanfict I'm working on, they get created since the villainess gets the theory that if the heroes split into for different personas, then should have four shadows that can act and think for themselves instead of just one. Thus creating Navy, Crimson and Royal who share a brotherly bond with Shadow despite the fact that their basically their counterpart's shadows only different in personality and preferred weapons. (This fact irks them all to no end, including Zelda fanfict Shadow)**

 **Breeze, is Toon Link from Wind Waker, only I wrote him as a laid-back character since it dawned on me that since he lived on an island with very little activity beside chores and was shown asleep before Aryll was kidnapped, that he might be a casual, yet lazy hero who managed to see the bright side of mostly everything and could be a dangerous person to fight since he has the counter Z targeting system. (I'm not sure if MM Link, OOC or TP had counter attacks when Z-targeting with a Sword)**

 **Hopefully it made sense... Also! Before I forget, Chapters after this point updates shall come a lot slower due to the fact that I'm still writing 11 and struggling with it, have a Piano recital thingy to stress over and an older sister coming to visit.**


	11. Chapter 11, Ray Of Hope

**I own nothing but the job of handing out plastic dinos at my job :3**

* * *

An hour had passed after Zelda's realization, some trying to rest while others tried to look on the bright side, Shadow sighed and adjusted his hat, he had gotten lucky during their fight against the three phonies, taking the least damage while they went after the others.

Shadow looked up at Vio who was using studying the destroyed ceiling, he seemed to be listening to something, what it was? Shadow had no clue, he was about to ask when Falco jumped up and yelled, "Alright! Who the heck is playing that music!" gaining everyone's attention.

"So I'm not going crazy?" Pikachu questioned, he sighed in relief while Zelda looked around, trying to pinpoint the source, "It sounds… mournful, yet encouraging as well." Phoenix nodded in agreement and gave her two cents on the odd melody, "It seems to be saying Don't give up."

"Because we shouldn't!" Shadow looked up at the destroyed park entrance and studied a girl who was escorting three guys, two of them seemed to be young adults while the third was a young pre-teen, carrying a shining object that looked a lot like the Smash Ball, the girl grinned at them and held up a square device which was playing the music.

"After all! We still have a trump card!" the girl announced, Shadow stood up, sword at the ready, the man who was leaning on the girl glared distastefully but ignored him, focusing on the rest of the smashers who seemed baffled by the odd group.

"W-who are you?" Toon question, the man on the right who looked incredulously drunk, giggled and leaned to the side, "You know us silly! After all I like to blow stuff up!" the man snickered and clapped his hands while the other man glared at him, "Please, stop talking."

"Can we blow every-," the crazy man started to ask when the other three shot him a glare, the first man sighed and introduced himself, "I, am Master Hand," Shadow blinked and looked at Toon, "I thought Master Hand WAS a hand." Toon shrugged and muttered, "That's what I thought as well."

Master Hand ignored them and continued talking, now gesturing toward the crazy man who was leaning back and forth, his red eyes darting all over the place with insane glee, "And this, is Crazy Hand who-,"

"Look a hole!" Crazy Hand shrieked, he darted forward, stumbling slightly to investigate the hole in the floor further, "I bet I can make it bigger." Crazy Hand mused.

"Please don't." Master Hand groaned, the girl snickered while the small boy just stared into space. Not seeing anything really with his oddly colored eyes.

"And this, is Master Core." Master Core looked up but said nothing, remaining silent, "But, how do you guys have human bodies?" Zelda questioned, "Which look surprisingly like I pictured you to be?"

Master Hand gestured to the girl who was now changing the song playing, "You can thank this art geek for that." The girl looked up and frowned at him, "You know I can draw you in a causal outfit for that comment, right?"

"This wasn't a causal outfit?" Master Hand questioned his blue eyes glowing faintly with confusion, Shadow started at him in disbelief, Master Hand was wearing a grey short sleeved sweater with a white undershirt, his blue slakes looked clean and fresh.

"It's a business outfit!" Crazy Hand laughed, jumping up and nearly toppling into the hole, Crazy Hand gasped then start to laugh as he balanced himself, "I like having legs." Crazy Hand announced.

"Please. Shut up." Master Hand ordered, "Your giving me a headache." Crazy Hand tilted his head and pointed at Master hand with his right arm, Shadow frowned when he noticed that his outfit covered Crazy Hand's right hand completely.

"I thought you couldn't get headaches." Crazy Hand said. Master Hand face-palmed and retorted, "Well, I'm getting one now from your crazy rambling."

Crazy Hand frowned and was about to say something else when Mario steered the conversation back on track, "So, your saying that girl drew your human forms?" Master Hand and Crazy Hand nodded in agreement,

"But… They look so weird." Blue said, the girl frowned at him and defended her art with, "It was either this or nothing Blue, deal with it." While Crazy Hand said, "I like this form, I have a long sleeve." He waved his right arm and giggled as his long ratted sleeve flapped in the air.

"Besides, it had to be something formal since they more or less rule Smash." The girl added. Shadow and Red exchanged looks, she had a point, Master Hand's formal/causal outfit fit him perfectly since he was a man- hand of chivalry. And Crazy Hand's outfit fit him perfectly, despite the fact that his red and yellow eyes which was mostly covered by his crazed white hair, that stood out a bit.

But Crazy Hand's outfit was tailored to be like Master Hand, only, crazier, his grey short sleeved sweater had red rimming that was a couple sizes too big, revealing his dark grey grey with uneven sleeves and a choppy ends.

He wore dark blue jeans that were just as choppy at his undershirt and mismatched shoes and socks, he seemed completely fine with how he looked though, happily stumbling around Master Hand and Master Core as he explored the destroyed cafeteria.

"Alright, so why does Master Core look like a pre-teen?" Phoenix questioned, the girl bluntly said, "I heard a theory about the world of Smash really being played out by a small boy and designed Master Core off of that."

Master Core studied his pale black hoodie then looked back at the group not saying anything, "Alright so for a brief recap," Sonic said, "The Master hand people are still alive."

"I'm dead!" Crazy Hand screamed, they ignored him and Sonic continued, "Master Core's here along with a random artist who claims to have a trump card." The girl nodded and held up a small red device, "Yup! You may call me G-Stone! For I am awesome!"

"Rigghtttt." Link said, he faced Master Hand who was glaring at Crazy Hand, "I'm guessing that G-Stone is the trump card?" Master Hand looked up and nodded, "When we saw how badly outnumbered we were, we pulled a character from the real world with enough supplies to help us."

"So the random fighters from other worlds were being summoned by her?" Vio questioned, G-Stone nodded and gestured to her shadow, "SJ helped out too."

Falco frowned and asked "SJ? Who's that?" while Shadow tensed and glared at the shadow, which was waving hello, "My shadow of awesomness!" G-Stone explained, "She helped me summon other fighters when I was busy destroying someone else."

"And yet you barely helped us out." Mario grumbled, G-Stone flinched slightly before she glared at Mario, "Hey! I was busy trying to figure out who would be best suited for whom! Besides! I saved Link and Pikachu with the awesome Squigly and Fukua!"

"They were scary." Pikachu said, "Not awesome." G-Stone shrugged and said, "Meh, I find them to be awesome, Fukua's mostly close range and long range attacks really help out in a pinch, especially for combos while Squigly's long ranged attacks help weaken them." Link frowned, not understanding how having two close and long ranged fighter was helpful but didn't ask.

"Right, if we're done talking about them." Master Hand said, clearly not approving of the two girls, "We have a plan that will hopefully put the odds in our favor."

"How so?" Zelda questioned, "We use G-Stone's summoned fighters against Tabuu's?" G-Stone frowned and shook her head no, "I can only summon one or two fighters depending on the game I'm playing, and a lot of them weren't built for Smash, so it's tricky to use them in certain areas."

"But that Neku guy didn't have a problem destroying Ridely." Shadow pointed out, then he grumbled, "Or me." G-Stone nodded in agreement, "True, but that's only because Ridely was a monster and you were a shadow, meaning that you showed up on Neku's scanner, in the game he can his partner could only fight noise that were treated like ghosts, living can't see them, but dead people can. It probably won't work in Tabuu's realm since it's full of forgotten data or something."

"Then what's the plan?" Shulk asked, "Barge in and attack?"

"Yup!" G-Stone chirped. Zelda groaned while Blue exploded, "Really!? We're just going to walk into the bomb field!? We might as well just get tee-shirts that says kill us please!"

Crazy Hand giggled while Master Hand tried to explain in greater detail, "We are not going to walk into a bomb field, Tabuu's clearly went through great lengths to create this tournament for his grand finale, he won't change his plan for a minor set-back such as arriving early."

"And just how," Phoenix argued, "Do you purpose to arrive early?" G-stone held up her red device and grinned, "By taking the train of course!" she swiped down on the tiny screen and they heard a long blare of a steam whistle, "All Aboard!" G-Stone instructed, happily walking to the Train station.

"Any questions?" Master Hand off, trying not to laugh at the befuddled crowd in front of him, when no one answered he gestured toward the train station door, "You heard her, all aboard."

"R-right." Shulk said, they walked toward the train station and were surprised to see an old steam train, with a wooden passenger car with a wooden engine, G-Stone was sitting inside the control panel, next to a Toon Link wearing a tunic colored similar to Toon. He was checking a map and planning out the safest route.

"There are too many links here." Shadow grumbled, Vio and Blue nodded in agreement as they helped Red onto the train, Sonic whistled and sat down on a green bench, "Wow, I was expecting something fancy."

"Meh, I wasn't in the mood to change looks." G-Stone explained she scribbled something on her screen and frowned before muttering to herself, "You wouldn't happen to have health potions, would you?" Zelda questioned.

"Umm… Lemme check," G-Stone closed the red device and glanced down at SJ, who materialized next to her holding a smaller red device, "Mia's on the job." SJ said. G-Stone nodded and pushed a lock of brown and green dyed hair out of her glasses. SJ pushed a couple buttons and a girl with light blue hair wearing a winter med-evil outfit appeared, she raised her staff and summoned a blue storm of stars.

Link relaxed as the stars disappeared, leaving him feeling fresh and ready to fight. Judging by the other looks of surprise and small smiles, the stars had healed them as well.

"Random question," Shadow started, then he stopped and corrected himself, "Two random questions." G-Stone glanced up, "Yea?"

"When Emerl showed up again he got mad and looked ready to kill Tabuu over something concerning the trio of fakeniess." Shadow started, "Why was that?"

"Because he stole my designs, then my OC's." G-Stone explained, "Crimson, Royal and Navy were your siblings in a story I was writing, which is why they seemed concerned over your while-being."

"And Breeze?" Toon questioned.

"He was you, only more island-like."

"Okaay then, second question, why the heck do you and SJ look like completely different people?" SJ looked up from her window perch and frowned, "I don't like that different, I just wanted my hair dyes to be black."

"And, she's a shadow, so I drew her with darker shades of color to balance out mine." G-Stone explained, "Hence why she has a dark green jacket, dark jeans and why I have an apple green vest of awesomeness and light blue jeans."

"Riggghtt." Shadow said, not really getting the difference, or not caring enough to care, "I'm going to sit down now." G-Stone nodded and resumed whatever she was doing.

"Alright, I think we're ready-," G-Stone said when someone yelled, "Hey! Wait for me!" Link looked up from his sword and studied the woman with long green hair that tumbled onto the train, "Bleh! I forgot how weird Sheik's shoes were." The woman muttered, she stood up and smoothed her hair, giving everyone a giant grin as she surveyed the train.

She was wearing a pink jacket and a blue tank-top, complete with light pink cargo pants with a blaster attracted to a cloth belt and brown ankle length boots.

"Alright! I'm ready to kick from butt!" the woman announced, Mario frowned at the strange woman, asking the question that was on everyone's mind, "Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Samus, remember?"

"Samus was defeated." Link said, "I saw it happen." The woman frowned and shifted her weight, "No, I wasn't, my suit got was beat to a pulp, so I went back to my room to change." Red frowned and leaned over to Toon, whispering, "I thought she was a robot."

"Everyone thought that." Toon muttered, the woman huffed and said, "Well there isn't! And just because I barely remember who anyone is doesn't change anything!"

"You don't remember us?" Zelda asked with a small frown, the woman shook her head no, "I'm in the same boat with Sheik, we just woke up here, not really remembering anything from anywhere, the only reason why I didn't flip out was because my suit had recordings from past missions."

"I still don't-," Shulk started to say when Master Core looked up from his glowing ball bluntly ending the argument with, "She's Samus. Cease this foolishness at once."

"And with that, we're off!" G-Stone said, the train lurched forward and speed off at full speed, sending everyone tumbling out of their seats with yelps of surprise.

"Full speed ahead!" G-Stone cheered while SJ laughed and yelled, "Be careful! We have passengers!"

"So!? They can't jump out of the train!"

"You sure?"

"I'm sure!"

"I wish we could though." Shadow grumbled as they made a sharp right and plunged into the darkness, the warm lights from the train station fading in the distance.

* * *

 **I really need to figure out a editing schedule for stories I published on Fanfict :/ I ended working on a original story and playing Mabinobi until I realized that I finish the chapter practically a week ago. Hooray for bad memory skills! _;**


	12. Chapter 12, Old Friends New Enemies

**I own nothing, but the awesomeness of G-Stone and SJ :3**

* * *

"Rematch!" Vaati ordered as Glacier and Hammer once again destroyed him and Scourge in a game of Mario Kart, "Dude, give it up." Scourge said, "I'm better on my feet, not driving a car!"

"Besides, this is our tenth win." Glacier reminded, Hammer nodded and sneered, "Might wanna quit when your behind." Vaati growled at them and summoned a gust of wind, nearly knocking the Ice Climbers out of their seats.

"Hey guys." They looked up and nodded hello at Geno who was studying a map, "Tabuu said that the tournament heroes were supposed to be arriving tomorrow morning. Correct?"

"Yea, something like that." Scourge replied, "Darkie might have more info though." Geno nodded slowly while Glacier frowned, "Why do you ask?"

"Mallow and I saw a train arriving a couple minutes ago," Geno explained, "It seemed odd since its 'nighttime' but even odder since a boy in a green tunic and blonde hair was driving the train."

"Toon Link can drive a train?" Hammer questioned while Scourge pulled up the camera feeds, showing the tournament heroes stepping out of the train looking around the darkness, "Looks like they came early." Scourge stood up and stretched, "5 bucks that Tabuu throws a tantrum when I give him the news."

"Your on!" Vaati challenged, while Geno frowned and muttered, "I shall never understand the purpose of betting." Before returning to his Forest Maze.

* * *

So far so good Master Hand decided, despite the minor set-back they discovered when only the chosen ones, Samus, G-Stone, SJ and his group could leave the train, they were making good progress despite being unable to see.

"Hey G-Stone, got anything that can light up the darkness?" Mario asked, after tripping over a dirt like stricter, "Maybe, I could use a Pokemon move called Flash." G-Stone said, she pulled out her smaller square device which was called a Gameboy and turned it on, a moment later, a Raichu appeared and used Flash.

Lighting up the darkness. "Hey! We're in a cave!" G-Stone realized, Samus groaned and leaned against a stone wall, "Why is that a good thing?" Samus asked.

"Because! This a Pokemon cave from Firered!" G-Stone explained, "And I have Fireball!"

"Who?" Link asked, SJ smiled and explained, "Fireball's her Arcanine, who knows the move Dig. He can dig us out of this cave and back above ground."

"That doesn't sound very effective." Zelda mused, not liking the idea of digging out of an unknown cave, G-Stone ignored her and summoned Fireball, who promptly dug a hole, teleporting them outside.

"Wow… The night sky…" Crazy Hand gasped, Master Hand followed his counter-part's gaze, Master Hand felt a pang of jealous as he studied the sky, it seemed grainy and old compared to the HD skies he created back in Smash, but it had a charm to it. One that Master Hand couldn't place.

"Those stars look so sparkly." Samus mused, Link nodded in agreement and looked around, "Besides that, does anyone know where we are?" G-Stone stopped looking at the starry sky and looked around, "We appear to be on a Route, which one? I don't know or care." Shadow facepalmed why Vio asked, "Do you have a map?"

"Yea. And I vaguely know where the nearest town is, We're outside the Rock Tunnel-" G-Stone started when a bush behind them rustled, "Weapons out." Master Hand ordered, summoning a small card pile in his dominate hand, Crazy Hand giggled and looked around, enjoying the sounds of weaponry.

 **A Wild Alakazam appeared!**

SJ grinned and pulled out her 3ds, "I got this." SJ said, she was about to summon a Pokémon when she saw the level, "What the- It's level 100!"

"…What?" G-Stone joined her and glared at the Alakazam which was waving it's spoon in a slow circle, "I blame Gary Oak for this." G-Stone grumbled before she said, "Just use Y and get it over with."

"Right."

"Whose Y?" Red asked while Master Hand frowned at the odd nickname, then again, GirlgirlPink was even odder. SJ and G-Stone grinned and pointed to the summoned Pokemon, "That's Y." Master Hand blinked and studied the giant red and black tipped bird, it's wings looking like hands as it blue eyes leered down at the Alakazam.

"Oblivion Wing Y!" SJ ordered, Y seemed to smirk as it flew into the air and formed a beam of ominous purple light, using its hand like wings to aim it at Alakazam. Master Hand winched as the beam slammed into Alakazam.

"Huh, I didn't think it could survive after that attack." SJ mused, G-Stone shrugged and watched as Alakazam retaliated with Psych which did barely any damage to Y, "I guess we got lucky." G-Stone said, watching as Y used Phantom Force and KO'ed Alakazam.

"Maybe, but Alakazam isn't a catchable Pokémon you have to evolve it from Abra." SJ said, frowning slightly, G-Stone nodded in agreement, "And they shouldn't be hanging out around the Power Plant, only Steel and Electric type Pokémon hang out around here."

"There's a Power Plant?" Mario asked.

"Yes, but its abandoned. There's a town right up ahead but-," G-Stone froze as more bushes started to shake, "We need to get out of here." Master Hand warned, sensing more high level Pokemon approaching, "Just peachy." Shadow grumbled, G-Stone pulled out her Gameboy and summoned Iceball, while SJ switched Pokemon, replacing Y with a small bird with black tipped wings and orange feathers,

"You wouldn't happen to have more birds, would you?" Zelda asked.

"Sorry, we only have one main flyer per game." G-Stone explained, "So it's Mellow and Iceball to the rescue." Crazy Hand giggled, then frowned, "Wait… Couldn't we just walk away from all the grass?"

"That could work." Pikachu remarked, "But since every Pokemon around us is in attack mode, it'd be too risky to chance it."

"Oh wait!" G-Stone swapped Pokemon and sent out a Kadabra, "We can teleport to the nearest Pokemon Center!"

"And you just remembered this?" Mario questioned, G-Stone glared at him and muttered, "Well since I didn't want to go to Lavender Town…" before saying, "Kadabra! Use Teleport!" Kadabra nodded and teleported everyone to a dreary town with a giant tower and barely any houses.

"Ugggghhh." G-Stone groaned, "I hate this town!" Zelda and Samus looked around while Blue said, "It doesn't look that bad." SJ glared at him and muttered, "That's because you weren't attacked by crazy people being controlled by ghosts." Pikachu shuddered and darted inside the Pokémon Center.

"I wonder where Tabuu's main base is." Vio mused as the rest followed Pikachu inside, "Who knows?" G-Stone said, "But it's probably not on Kanto."

Samus frowned and sat down on the couch, "Why not?"

"Kanto's an Island, the only base for villains here is under a casino." G-Stone explained then she thought for a moment and added, "That, and one on Island Five."

"Tabuu probably designed this area just for the Pokémon Trainers." Master Core guessed, "If we find them. They might show us a way out of here."

"But they could be anywhere!" Crazy Hand cackled, Link and Mario nodded in agreement, "And Kanto isn't exactly a small island." Link said, pointing to a map of Kanto.

"Maybe we'll get lucky." Red said with a hopeful smile, Crazy Hand laughed and crashed into a wall sneering, "Oh please! They won't just walk in here! That would be too-,"

"Hey look, Leaf and Red." Falco said just as the Pokémon Center doors slid open, revealing said trainers, Crazy Hand frowned and flopped to the floor, "Noooo faaaaiiiir!" Crazy Hand whined.

Red looked around the room and frowned, "You guys aren't supposed to come until tomorrow morning." Master Hand nodded in agreement and folded his arms behind his back, "True, but we aren't going down without a fight." Red nodded in agreement and looked around the room, "I'm guessing you bumped into the high leveled Pokemon as well?"

"Only one." Zelda said, "And we got lucky."

"Good for you." Leaf said, she studied her Pokeball and frowned, "Sadly luck hasn't been on our side." Vio raised an eyebrow in surprise, "I thought you would have enjoyed this, being world famous trainers and all."

"Normally, yes." Red replied he frowned and glanced down at his own Pokeballs, "But our Pokémon were low leveled, it was a miracle that we arrived here without getting attacked." Leaf sighed and muttered, "I really wanted a rematch…."

"Why would Tabuu raise the levels when your both unprepared?" Master Core asked, startling Red and Leaf who hadn't noticed him standing off in the corner. Leaf recovered and answered, "He noticed we had weak Pokemon and wanted to give us stronger Pokemon, but we insisted on catching them ourselves to find the right types. Tabuu of course went a bit overboard since we were supposed to be your challengers or something."

"Wait, I thought you weren't working for Tabuu." Link recalled.

"We aren't, but he asked us to do this as a favor, since you would be bumping into us first." Red explained.

"Well, we're in a Pokemon Center." Pikachu reminded them, "You could just heal your Pokemon and challenge us." Red sighed and pointed behind them. They looked and gasped at the unoccupied desk, "Where's Nurse Joy?" SJ asked while G-Stone said, "I bet Mewtwo took her!"

"Mewtwo's a trophy." Master Hand sighed, G-Stone glared at him and argued, "Maybe in Smash but not in Pokemon!" Crazy Hand giggled and said, "I like Bomb types!"

Leaf frowned, "That's not a Pokemon type."

"Just ignore him." Master Hand advised, "He's insane." Leaf made an 'ah' sound and inched closer to Red.

"So Tabuu put us in a stalemate." G-Stone said, "Lovely." Shadow frowned and disappeared for a moment before returning, "Not completely, I sense another pathway not too far from here, but it seems hidden."

"Anything else?" Vio asked. Shadow thought for a bit before adding, "Well, there's a huge sea path that leads to another island close by." Red frowned while Leaf said, "That's impossible, you can't sail to another island from Kanto, you have to head to Vermilion City and take a boat to get to different islands that aren't on the region map."

"Plus the rocks prevent anyone using a water type from leaving the border unless you're heading to Cinnabar island." Red added.

"Well, there's a path now, leading to an island not too far from here." Shadow said, "And it seems to have a Mushroom sign or something." Mario frowned while Samus checked her commutator which allowed them to speak to the group left behind.

They had turned Toon Link's train into an information base with the help of Vivra the computer virus, "Phoenix, any info about this random island?"

"Checking!" Phoenix said while Vivra popped up on screen, "It's the Forest Maze or something, you can easily sail there without too much trouble." Samus frowned and muttered thanks before looking up, "Well, off the too Forest Maze." Link said.

"Say hi to Geno and Mallow for us." Red said as they headed back toward the Power Plant, where the Sea Path was located, "We will!" G-Stone said while Mario frowned at the names.

"Weird…" Zelda said, "There don't seem to be any Pokemon out now." SJ frowned and looked around, "Yea… I know that Firered doesn't have a night/day time system but we should still be getting attacked."

"Meh, I'm just glad that we didn't have to battle Leaf and Red." G-Stone sighed. Shadow smirked and poked her, "Scardey cat!" Shadow teased, G-Stone glared at him while SJ said, "Red is the world champion, we've never battled him before, let alone seen his Pokémon Team, we only got lucky with Leaf since we guessed her starter Pokémon and since she was unprepared for a serious battle."

"Look! A bridge!" Falco said, Crazy Hand cheered while Master Core frowned slightly, "Odd. I didn't sense a bridge before." Master Hand nodded in agreement, "Be on guard everyone, we may get ambushed."

"By what? Sea ghosts?" Falco asked. Master Hand cringed as something flew out of the water and landed on the bridge, blocking their path.

 **A Wild Magicarp appeared!**

"Well… That was anti climatic." G-Stone said as the level 100 Magicarp flailed around the bridge, fruitlessly using Splash, not doing any damage to Red who was poking it with his Sword.

Crazy Hand whined and leaned on Master Hand, "Daaaww! I wanted to blow up the fishy!" Master Hand shoved him off and strolled past the fish, "You want to blow everything up." Master Hand grumbled, "Come on, let's get going."

The walk to the woods was perilous, or it would have been if they the only enemy that attacked wasn't Magicarp, which they all ignored. Despite the looming danger of them being in Tabuu's realm and the possible encounters up ahead Master Hand found the walk to be oddly soothing and refreshing.

He found himself nodding off a couple times when they paused to study the nature around them, even Shadow, the being of darkness found himself falling asleep.

By the time they reached the Forest Maze entrance it was nearly dawn, and everyone had agreed to crashing outside for the night, despite the possible dangers about.

Master Hand sighed and tried to make the soft patch of grass sleep worthy before he fell asleep, before he drifted off he heard Crazy Hand quietly babbling to Falco about the monsters here.

How that conversation went Master Hand didn't care or want to care. He did care when he woke up and found Crazy Hand using him as a teddy bear. Master Hand stifled a groan and looked around the best he could, everyone was still asleep, or still in a sleep induced daze.

Meaning that he couldn't yell at Crazy Hand like he wanted to. Instead he would have to slowly worm out of Crazy Hand's grip-,

"HE'S GOT A BOB-OMB!" Crazy Hand suddenly screamed, jolting everyone awake and in a panic, "You idiot." Master Hand groaned as he shoved Crazy Hand off of him and looked around.

"What the-," Shadow exclaimed, "We're in the middle of the maze!" G-Stone looked up and frowned at the lack of sunlight pouring through the trees while Samus said, "I guess Tabuu wants to get this over with."

"I wonder what the challenge is." Red mused while Vio and Toon looked expectantly at Mario who seemed disorientated by their surroundings. "Mario, you look bewilder." Master Hand noted, Link frowned and looked at the plumber, "You haven't been here before?"

"I… don't know." Mario admitted, "It looks familiar… But nothing's coming to me about how or why I was here." G-Stone gasped in horror, "Does this mean that you don't remember the awesome Geno and Mallow?!"

"Who?"

G-Stone gave Mario a look of bewilderment while SJ shook her head, "Apparently, Mario can't remember the Nes days." Then she frowned and looked to G-Stone, "Mario Rpg did come out on the Nes. Right?"

"Probably." G-Stone said. Zelda frowned and asked, "Who are Geno and Mallow?"

"Geno's a star possessing a toy in order to find some Star shards or something, he joins Mario's party with Mallow, a lost prince from the sky to rescue the princess and repair the star rod of dreams." G-Stone explained, "But I may be wrong about the story plot, I never played Mario Rpg."

"Then how the heck do you know about Geno and Mallow?!" Shadow demanded.

"Youtube videos. Geno popped up in a video I was watching forcing me to look him up since everyone seemed to like him so much, then I stumbled upon Forest Maze music videos and wikied the rest of the game." G-Stone explained, "Heck, Geno's probably the most liked character from that game since I barely hear anything about Mallow, even though he's a cool character after a while."

"Not ringing a bell." Mario deadpanned, earning twin face palms from SJ and G-Stone, "Alright." Master Hand suggested, "How about we start looking for an exit?"

"Can't, the only way to leave the Forest Maze is to follow Geno." G-Stone said, "Without him, you'll walk in circus." Shadow nodded in agreement, "I ended up walking through here with Vaati and the others, every time we lost Geno we just ended up at the start of the woods."

Vio sighed and looked around, "So the game plan is to wander around until we find the entrance of the woods again?"

"Looks like it." Samus said, Master Core nodded advising, "We should stick together in order to arrive at the same place at the same time." Master Hand nodded in agreement while Falco looked around, "Hey! I see a walking cloud!" Falco exclaimed, giving chase to the walking cloud.

"Falco wait!" Toon ordered chasing after him with Vio and Blue in tow, "Hey guys! Stay in a group!" Red yelled, Blue yelled back, "Easier said than done!" before disappearing into the darkness.

"YAY!" Crazy Hand screamed, "Time to get lost!" and promptly ran in the opposite directorion Falco had gone, "Crazy Hand! Get back here!" SJ commanded, sprinting after him with G-Stone in tow yelling, "Charge!"

"…Why…" was all Master Hand could say. Master Core shrugged and looked at Link, Red, Shadow, Zelda, Mario, Sonic, Pikachu and Samus, "Are you going to run off as well?"

"What? No!" Samus remarked, "I'm not getting lost in the creepy-," she froze and looked around, "Did you hear?" Mario and Link frowned, while Zelda asked, "Hear what?"

"That music! It sounds like…" Samus's eyes widen and she sprinted forward yelling, "Sheik! Are you there!?" Master Hand face palmed as Pikachu gave chase, trying to stop her, "…Are you done being idoits?" Master Core asked. Earning annoyed glares from the remainder.

* * *

"Aw man!" Falco panted, "I could have sworn that the cloud ran through here!" he straightened and frowned, "Okay… running from the group was a bad idea…" Falco muttered, feeling like a moron when he found nothing famialr around him but trees.

"BIRD BRAIN!"

Falco jumped as a blue blur slammed into him and held a hammer above his face, Falco blinked then grinned, "Hey Blue!" Blue growled and prepare to smash his face in.

"Blue, killing Falco won't help anyone." Vio reminded him, breathing hard as he leaned against a tree with Toon who was breathing just as hard, "Hi Vio! Toon!" Falco greeted, they ignored him and looked around, "Alright, so we're in the middle of nowhere with nothing to go on." Vio said.

Falco frowned, since they weren't in the middle of nowhere, they were in the Forest Maze. Where excectly? He didn't know. He wasn't very good with land locations, preferring to stay in the sky where everything made sense.

He was about to suggest back tracking when a bush moved, "Since when could bushes move?" Falco asked as Blue slowly got off of him and braced himself for a fight. Vio pulled out his bow while Toon readied his sword. They waited for a bit before Falco stepped forward, gun ready as he peered over it.

"Hey! It's the walking cloud!" Falco yelled, the 'cloud' looked up from its search and managed an unsure smile, "Hi… there?" the cloud said, unsure why the blue bird with a gun was talking to him. Toon joined him and studied the 'cloud' who was really a boy with puffy sandstone yellow hair with pink ends.

"Who are you?" the boy smiled and stood up, dusting his pirate coat off a little before he introduced himself, "I'm Mallow! And you must be Green. Right?"

"Wrong. My name is Toon." Mallow blushed slightly and played with this sleeves, "Oops! S-sorry! I just heard a lot about this Green guy from a friend." Toon nodded and looked around, "It is me… or did the forest suddenly get humid?"

Mallow blushed a little harder and cleared his throat, Falco frowned since the forest random weather system didn't seem to be caused by Mallow. Right?

"So are you guys looking for Geno?" Mallow asked, Vio glared at Falco and nodded, "Yes, but now we're trying to meet up with our friends before we find Geno."

"Good luck with that." Mallow said, he looked around the forest with a frown, "It's nearly impossible to backtrack without ending up at the start of the woods. And Geno's the only person who truly knows this place inside and out."

Toon frowned slightly and questioned, "I thought you Mario and Geno were together. I mean, you guys all traveled through the Forest Maze. Right?"

"We did, but the forest kept changing, the path that once lead to a tree log would change, and we would stumble into an empty field. Even if we did map out this entire place, we would still get lost." Mallow explained, "I honestly don't know how Geno even gets through here."

"So we're stuck until we find Geno." Blue grumbled, "Lovely." Falco grinned and looked around, "It can't be that bad! After all, this place is beautiful!"

Mallow smiled and folded his arms behind his back, "Yea, I used to hang out here after we defeated Smithy." He frowned slightly, seemly causing the clouds to darken and block out some of the sunlight, "Even Geno wasn't here to guide me and Mario was back at the castle, it was nice walking through memory lane…"

"So who's this Smithy guy?" Vio questioned, Mallow's face darkened slightly as he replied, "A very bad man. He shattered the Star road which allowed wishes and dream to be heard and granted, then he tried fill the world with weapons instead of wishes and sent his mechanical army to stop us."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Falco remarked, Mallow gasped in horror and said, "Living in a world where you can't wish or dream for anything except weapons doesn't sound awful?!"

"Not really." Falco admitted, "Besides, I fly a space-ship, battle space scum and other jerks every day. Having weapons would be a great asset."

"Ignore him Mallow, Falco comes from a different world." Toon explained, Mallow relaxed slightly and asked, "Like Scourge and Vaati?"

"You know those creeps?" Blue questioned, Mallow nodded, "Had to, Geno and I had to lead them out of the woods when we first met, everyone was in a party so were forced to interact."

"So what where they like?" Falco asked, Mallow thought for a bit then said, "Jerks with a lot in common, it was funny, once Drawcia swapped their colors and forced Scourge to be purple while Vaati was green."

"That must have been interesting." Toon said, a small smirk on his face as he imagined Vaati and Scourge's reactions, Mallow smiled in agreement and turned toward a path, "Come on, let's try and find Geno."

"Hopefully this will be easy." Vio sighed, Falco nodded in agreement and followed Mallow who was playing some cymbals in hopes of catching Geno's attention while they walked Mallow and Toon swapped stories.

Falco mostly ignored them and studied the wildlife, then deiced to stop when he realized that everything looked the same, from the flowers to the random bushes nearby.

"Geno!" Mallow yelled, "Are you here!" he frowned slightly when no one replied, "Maybe I should try." Blue offered, Vio looked away and coughed, earning a glare from Blue.

"Maybe he found the other group?" Falco suggested, Mallow shrugged and floated into a treetop, trying to spot him from the air, "Maybe. Maybe not. If he did then he would have lead them to the end and bumped into us."

"Hey, what if the other group attacked him?" Toon realized, "Mario doesn't even remember you guys and everyone else is on edge!" Mallow frowned and the clouds darkened again, "Why would Mario forget us?"

"Uh… Good question…" Blue said he grabbed Mallow's arm and pulled him back down to earth, "How about we go ask him?"

"I guess…" Mallow muttered, although he looked close to tears. Toon nodded in agreement, "Besides once he sees you he'll probably remember you!"

"Doubt it." Mallow remarked, "I used to look totally different when I first met Mario, the only person he might remember by appearance would be Geno."

"Oh…" Toon said. Falco frowned and placed a wing on Mallow's shoulder, "Don't worry kiddo, Master Hand and Master Core are with them, they won't allow Geno to get beat up." Mallow nodded his thanks and pushed on, "Come on. He might before over here."

"Or he might be behind that bush." Falco said, pointing to a crouching figure hiding behind a bush, Mallow blinked and grinned, "Geno!" Mallow yelled, the figure jumped and made shushing motions before pointing over the bush.

They joined him and peered over the leafy branches, their, Sonic, Link Mario and Zelda were waiting, Master Hand, Master Core and Crazy Hand were missing along with Samus, Pikachu, G-Stone, Shadow, Red and SJ.

"Where did everyone go?" Vio asked, careful to keep his voice low, Geno pointed down a pathway, saying, "Shadow and the one you call Red, went off searching for you, the other two went off in to find the source of… something. I wasn't able to hear."

"So why are we hiding behind a bush?" Falco questioned, Geno merely said, "I was trying to gauge how they were feeling in hopes of avoiding a confrontation." He glanced at Mallow and asked, "Could you please return to the cottage? I left my hat." Mallow grinned and nodded yes before he sneaked away.

"And now the hard part." Geno muttered, he stood up and walked through the bush, hands up in surrendering gesture. Mario and Link got to their feet and studied Geno who stopped and said, "I have no means of harming any of you. I merely come to assist you." Link frowned but lowered his sword, "How can we trust you?" Link questioned.

"That is up to you." Geno coolly replied, "But know this, I am the only one who can lead you and your friends out of the woods."

"So your Geno?" Zelda asked.

"Yes and no, my real name is **(heart)!?** , but most people find it easier to call me Geno." Geno explained, Falco frowned as Geno glanced at Mario, waiting for his reaction. Mario merely frowned and asked, "Do you think you can locate our other friends? We got split up the moment we arrived."

"I'll do the best I can." Geno said, "In fact, I've already found a couple." He gestured toward the bush where they were hiding, Falco stood up and waved while Blue, Vio and Toon joined the main party, "Alright! We'll be out of here in no time!" Sonic said.

Geno nodded and warily studied Mario before he turned, his cape dancing in the slight breeze, "Follow me." Geno said, "But be warned, I tend to go on 'auto pilot' as my friend calls it."

"You have a friend?" Zelda looked around and frowned, "Where is he?"

"I've asked him to retirve an item for me." Geno explained, briskly walking down the northern path, "I was unsure how you would react and feared for his safety."

"Understandable." Mario said, changing pace in order to keep up with Geno who was slowly losing interest in talking. Falco had to break into a light jog just to ensure that he didn't lose the rest of the group. It felt like ages before Geno stopped and sidestepped to prevent anyone from crashing into him.

"What's with the sudden stop?" Link questioned as he tripped over his feet and nearly crashed into Zelda, Geno pointed ahead where Crazy Hand was laughing manically as he dodged an angry looking SJ and G-Stone.

"Give me back my bag!" G-Stone ordered as Crazy Hand dodged a wild swipe, "Hee-hee! Never!" Crazy Hand cackled, SJ growled and tried her luck, "Oh! I wonder what this is!" Crazy Hand teased pulling out a blue journal and waving it in the air, "KYA!" G-Stone yelled, she took a running start and jump kicked Crazy Hand sending them both falling to the ground.

"Victory!" SJ cheered as she yanked G-Stone's bag away from Crazy Hand who whined and tried to sit up, "No faaiir! I was winning!"

"A kick to the face?" G-Stone retorted. Crazy Hand thought about this before he grinned, "Yup!" G-Stone face palmed while SJ sighed and looked around, she froze when she spotted Geno, "No way…" SJ said. G-Stone and Crazy Hand looked up and followed her gaze.

"Cool! Geno's here!" G-Stone said, Crazy Hand frowned and flopped back onto the ground not caring that he was getting his clothes dirty.

"You've… Heard of me?" Geno asked, surprised that anyone knew him, G-Stone and SJ nodded, "And Mallow! You guys are amazing characters!" G-Stone said. A small smile formed as Geno nodded his thanks before he resumed leading them to the exit.

"I suppose asking him to slow down is out of the question." Vio said as they jogged to keep up with Geno, "Yup!" G-Stone chirped, "He only stops once he reaches the exit. Or until he runs into that bow boss."

"Bow boss?" Mario questioned, "What kind of boss was a bow?"

"His name was Bowyer." Geno explained, "He was one of Smithy's lieutenants. He was attacking Rosedale, which is normally outside the entrance of the Forest Maze, with poison tipped arrows, turning people into living statues."

"Hope to never run into that nutcase." Sonic said, shivering slightly at the thought of being a living statue, Zelda nodded in agreement and asked, "How did you stop him?"

"Mario and Mallow helped me get rid of the fiend." Geno replied, he glanced at Mario once more, once again waiting for a reaction. And once again, Mario showed nothing but confusion, "I don't recall that…" Mario mumbled.

"Well, it was a long time." Toon offered, "It's probably coming back in bits in pieces." Mario frowned and shook his head no, "Nothing's coming back to me. Normally I remember an adventure but this…" he trailed off as Geno picked up the pace, practically leaving them in the dust.

"Greaaat." Blue complained, "Now were gonna lose him!"

"Come on. We might as well start running." Toon said, "Aw mannn." Crazy Hand whined, "I don't wanna run! I wanna blow stuff up!"

"Do you just want to blow everything up?" Sonic asked.

"Nah, I wanna blow stuff up AND crush it!" Crazy Hand admitted, a mad smile slowly growing wider at the thought. G-Stone threw her hands up and joked, "I guess that's why you were the hardest boss of Melee."

Falco was about to say something when he slammed into Geno, who abruptly stopped, "Ack! Why are we stopping now?!" Falco demanded, Geno ignored him and looked ahead, "Tabuu. What a surprise." Falco peered over Geno's head and glared at the man who was called Tabuu, he looked nothing like the old Tabuu, it was pretty unnerving to see a man with long teal green hair with equally teal eyes and pale skin,

Wearing a teal green robe with black square tipped robe stood stock still in the slight breeze with a grey shirt with black vines dancing around the middle, his pants were a lighter shade of teal green with gold chains decorating the ends, matching the gold chains on the hem of his robe. Tabuu noticed Geno and smiled, sending shivers down Falco's spine at how kind and genuine it seemed.

"Yes, but I couldn't help but say hello to some old friends of mine." Tabuu said, he gestured toward Master Hand and Master Core who looked ready to murder him with a teal green slippered foot. Geno nodded slowly and folded his arms, "Really. I simply presumed you were here to rub salt into the wounds you created."

"That too~!" Tabuu chirped, he jumped down from his perch in the tree and looked at Mario, who had his hands aflame and ready to fight. "But it seems like your 'old friend' has been more effatino than I have."

Geno looked away but nodded yes while Falco and the others braced for a fight, Tabuu noticed this and smirked. "Oh please, I'm not going to break my own rules just to dish out some revenge. I'll be waiting to fight you at the end of your trails."

"Nice to know that you play fair." Master Hand growled, Tabuu shrugged and studied Mario, "Have to, after all. Some people may have remembered you better than others, it wouldn't be fair for me to rub salt in _their_ wounds when they're going to rub salt in their old comrades' wounds."

"What are you talking about!?" Link demanded, bow ready and posed to fire, Tabuu sighed and folded his arms, "You'll figure it out. I'd just be careful about what you say around here." Tabuu leaned forward whispering, "The trees have ears ya know!"

"What ears?" Falco asked, "I just see bark and leaves." Tabuu shrugged and turned to leave, "I'm just warning you, after all." He glanced behind him and sent Mario a serious glare, "Luigi would be heartbroken if you forgot about him. Meaning that anyone who cares for you would feel the same."

"I would never forget my brother!" Mario snarled, Tabuu nodded and walked away, "I would hope so. After all, he is your blood relative." Master Hand glared at Tabuu as he walked past, ready to say something when a fireball flew past his face, "Mario!" G-Stone snapped, "He was leaving!" then she frowned and grumbled, "Although I really wanted to sick Emerl on him."

Tabuu sighed and turned around, "Really? And here I thought that the great jump man Mario would have more decant than to pull a sneak attack!"

"You lost any respect when you attacked us." Zelda countered, Falco and Vio nodded in agreement, Tabuu frowned then shrugged, "Whatever, I'm leaving and there's nothing you can do about it- wait." He stopped and looked around, "Something I'm forgetting…" then he grinned and said, "Oh yea! I came to tell you that Shadow and Red have been kidnapped!"

"What?! By who!?" Blue demanded while Vio readied his bow growling "If Red or Shadow are harmed, then you're going to be sorry!" Tabuu rolled his eyes, "Oh please, Shadow's brothers just want to speak with him. There trying to make him remember." G-Stone grimaced and looked away, "It won't work, There from two different Alternative universes. Shadow won't remember them."

"Really? Hmm…" Tabuu thought about this before he shrugged and turned away, "Looks like I'm using some of that story's lore after all." G-Stone tensed and looked ready to strangle him but didn't move.

"Can I leave now?" Tabuu asked, Link hesitated and looked at Master Hand who curtly nodded, "Finally!" Tabuu said, he turned to leave but stopped at someone yelled, "Mr. Tabuu!" Tabuu turned and managed a small smile as Mallow darted out of the bushes, he stopped and beamed a smile at him.

"Hello Mallow, what's the rush?" Tabuu asked. Mallow glanced into the shadows before asking, "I was wondering if you could help Crimson's older brother remember him. He seems to be having trouble."

"Well what a coincident, I was just about to tinker with that myself." Tabuu said, "I'll try my best, but I'll probably end up destroying some older memories of Shadow's other friends."

"R-really?" Mallow frowned and tried to hide his disappointment, "Oh… I was hoping that he could remember both ways." Tabuu gave him a sympathetic smile and patted his head, "Yes… Life is unfair that way."

Mallow nodded in agreement and turned to leave, "It was nice seeing you. I've got to find Geno and give him his hat." Tabuu nodded and was about to say something when Mallow noticed Geno, "Hi Geno!" Mallow said happily running over to give Geno his hat, "Well that was lucky."

"One would suppose." Geno said, he put on his hat and nodded his thanks, "Hey! You're the people from before!" Mallow grinned at Falco, Toon, Blue and Vio and waved hello. They waved back and watched Tabuu who was surveying the scene with interest.

"So you're Geno's friend?" Sonic asked, he grinned and introduced himself, "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, pleasure to meet you!" Mallow grinned and tried to stand tall, "I'm Mallow! Prince of Nimbus Land!"

"People in Nimbus Land look like pirates?" Crazy Hand questioned.

"Nah, I just like wearing stripes." Mallow explained, he studied his coat and said, "Plus this coat is awesome!" he spun around in a circle to prove his point, "I would like to know where these clothes came from." Geno said, looking down at his light blue tunic in mild curiosity.

"Introductions aside, shouldn't we start looking for Shadow and Red?" Blue asked.

"And Samus." Tabuu added, "She was kidnapped by Mask once she found the source of the music."

"So three people have gone missing?" Mallow asked, he frowned and looked at Geno and shook his head no, "If they were taken then they wouldn't be in the maze still, they would have returned to their areas."

"Areas what are they?" Mario questioned, Mallow faced him about to answer his question but stopped when he noticed who asked it, he grinned and tackled Mario in a hug, "Mario! It's been ages since I've seen you!" Mallow exclaimed.

"It… has?" Mario said, Mallow jumped back and nodded, unfazed by Mario's reply, "Yea! It's me Mallow!" Mallow said, "For some weird reason, Geno and I woke up looking completely different, or I did since Geno's still a wooden puppet but it's still me!"

"Why is Geno made out of wood?" Falco asked, Geno ignored him and watched Mallow with slight concern, "I don't remember anyone with the name Mallow." Mario admitted, he backed up and awkwardly said, "Sorry."

"Huh? Y…you don't remember me?" Mallow asked, frowning slightly, Mario shook his head no, "Or Geno, or anything about where we are."

"Random question!" G-Stone said she looked at Mario and asked, "Do you remember anyone by the name of White Mage, Slime and Ninja?"

"I remember those guys. They crashed our Sports tournament to retrieve the Sports Crystal and prevent a monster from being unleashed on the Mushroom Kingdom." Mario replied.

SJ groaned while G-Stone threw her hands up in annoyance, "There goes my theory." G-Stone grumbled.

"What theory?" Zelda asked.

"Well, Mallow and Geno were created by another company for Mario RPG, Square Enix to be exact, years later, they bring some characters over from other games like Final Fantasy into sport games." G-Stone explained, "I was just wondering of Mario was forgetting Square Enix in general or just this entire adventure."

Geno frowned and asked, "Does this mean that he's forgotten Princess Toadstool and Bowser as well?"

"Why would I forget Princess Peach and Bowser?" Mario questioned, "I see them almost every day."

"Princess Peach?" Mallow questioned, "Whose she? I only remember a Princess Toadstool."

"I do too." Geno said, "She was an interesting magic user, but she helped us fight Smithy along with Bowser." Sonic frowned and asked, "Whose Princess Toadstool? I've never heard about her before."

"She's Princess Peach," SJ explained, "With a different name. A lot of older characters that appear frequently had something changed, like Daisy, she originally had long hair but was changed to have short hair later on. Or Birdo, who was once a guy but changed to a girl in the American version so they could ship Yoshi with her."

"Wow. Mario's past sounds confusing." Sonic said, Blue and Vio nodded in agreement while Tabuu shook his head in disgust, "It's awful, so many villains and heroes created for once game, never to be seen again or given an important role in the story."

"So… Are we…" Mallow asked his eye filling tears as he trailed off, Tabuu nodded yes, "Apparently so. Since you were created by a different company and reduced to cameo appearance. Your adventure, world and outside memories were forgotten by others inside the Mushroom Kingdom." He gestured toward Mario and bluntly said, "In other words, this isn't your Mario. This is merely an updated core of an empty hero." Mallow slowly nodded in agreement but still looked close to tears while Geno sighed, "I suppose that makes sense. It would explain why you weren't able to recreate other lands connecting to the Forest Maze."

"But, if it makes you feel better, Mario didn't even recognize his own brother in one adventure." Tabuu said, "Despite the cheesy outfit, similar appearance to Mario and his hat which had his trade mark letter, L, on it."

Mario tensed while Falco glanced at Geno, who seemed intrigued by this, "That's impossible!" Mallow argued, although he sounded unsure, "Mario wouldn't forget his own family! That would be awful!"

"True, but he did, along with everyone else in his party, Honestly, I don't even think they remembered him after the main plot appeared. And the fact that he popped up multiple times as Mr. L and didn't figure it out until the very end of the game." Tabuu glanced at Mario, a small smirk forming on his lips, "Also… Wasn't Luigi's Smash fueled by his hatred of being in the shadows while you saved the same pathetic world over and over again?"

Mario opened his mouth to argue when it started to rain. Hard. "I-I can't believe it!" Mallow sobbed he wiped his tears away and tried to seem presentable as he demanded, "Who are you?! Why are you posing as Mario!?"

"What?! I am Mario!" Mario argued, Link grimaced and readied his sword, "Get ready for a fight." Link advised, Mallow sniffled and the rain stared to lighten, until it was a drizzle.

"No way!" Mallow argued, "The real Mario wouldn't seem so heartless to his loved ones! He would never forget about his friends OR family! Especially not his family!" Tabuu nodded in agreement and leaned against a tree, enjoying the show.

"Mallow please." Zelda tried, "I know it's hard to find out that you've been forgotten but this is the real Mario." Mallow angrily shook his head no, "No way! This imposter just pulling the wool over your eyes!"

"What wool?" Falco questioned, "It's an expression." Master Hand sighed. G-Stone glanced up at the cloud and edged away from the tree she was standing by, "Looks like a lighting storm's about to hit." G-Stone mused.

Geno grimaced and moved to comfort Mallow, only be to stopped when Mallow turned to Tabuu with a determent glint in his eyes, "Mr. Tabuu, if I get rid of this imposter, then can you restore Shadow's memory?"

Tabuu blinked in surprise and tilted his head, "Really? I thought you were going to ask me to restore Mario's memories?" Mallow shook his head and glared at Mario, causing the clouds to rumble with violent thunder, "No… family should never forget family. Ever. Shadow's memories are more important to Royal, Crimson and Navy than Mario's are to me."

"Wow. That was super mature." Tabbu said, he stood up and waved his hand, "Consider it done, Geno, will you be-," Geno nodded, cutting Tabuu off in mid sentence as he walked over to Mallow, facing their group with a determent glint of his own in his wooden eyes.

"Well, then." Tabuu faced Mario with a superiors smile, "Would you like to choose a partner? After all, a 2v1 wouldn't be a fair fight for anyone."

"2v1?" Master Core questioned, "Shouldn't it be 2v13?"

"Nope!" Tabuu snapped his fingers and a square appeared, separating everyone from Geno, Mallow and Mario as an invisible wall appeared and shoved everyone else back, "As I was saying," Tabuu continued, "Who shall be your partner Mario?"

Mario glanced behind him then back at Tabuu, clearly sensing the disadvantage he was at with either group. Tabuu smirked and was about say something when a pre-teen wielding a Key like sword appeared, "He chooses Sora! From Kingdom Hearts!" G-Stone said.

"Darn… I was hoping she couldn't summon fighters inside my square." Tabuu grumbled, "Very well then, let the battle begin!" Mallow and Geno nodded and jumped back as Sora lunged with his Keyblade,

"Geno Beam!" Geno yelled.

"Get ready to dodge!" G-Stone advised while Mallow yelled, "Star Rain!" summoning a storm of falling stars that pinned Sora and Mario into a corner while they tried to avoid the mega laser from Geno.

"Take care of Geno Mario!" SJ offered, "Mallow's a mage with low physical attacks, Geno's a well-rounded fighter!"

"Right!" Mario charged toward Geno, hammer ready as Geno braced himself, catching the hammer mid swing and retaliating with a burst of stars, "Yes! Card break!" G-Stone cheered as Sora lunged and forced Geno to stumble, locking him in a three hit combo before Geno recovered.

"Psychopath!" Mallow yelled as he dodged a fireball from Mario, he whipped out his cymbals and whispered something to Geno who grimaced and pointed at Sora, "Geno Whirl!"

"Come on! Cloud to the rescue!" G-Stone begged, Link frowned and muttered, "Why does that name sound so familiar…" as Sora summoned a tall warrior with spiky blond hair and a giant sword.

"Get of the way Mallow!" Geno warned as he took the attack head on, trying to protect Mallow, "Hp Rain!" Mallow yelled trying to heal Geno before Cloud could finish his devastating attack.

"Oh no you don't!" Mario yelled, slamming his hammer into Mallow and sending the nimbus crashing into a tree before he could finish his spell.

"Not good." Geno panted as Cloud disappeared, bringing Sora back into the fight, "He's nearly out of cards." Mallow said, slowly struggling to get to his feet, "Once he recharges blast him."

Geno nodded and dodged a wild swing from Sora, countering with a star attack, "Not so fast!" Mario yelled as he hurled a fireball at Geno who cringed and took the attack head on.

"Karma!" Mallow yelled, "Shocker!" Mario stifled a grunt of pain as the giant lightning bolt slammed into him forcing him to his knees, "Geno Whirl!" Geno yelled, taking advantage of Mario's stunned state.

"Human shield!" G-Stone yelled, SJ glanced at her causing her to blush slightly as she directed Sora in front of Mario to take the blow, "Well everyone else was yelling out attacks." G-Stone muttered as Sora flew out of the square and turned into a floating three tipped card.

"And Geno and Mallow win!" Tabuu cheered as Mallow stood up and used his Sonic Cymbals on Mario, turning him into a trophy, Geno sighed in relief and collapsed, "Fake or not." Geno muttered, "He's defiantly strong."

Mallow nodded in agreement and yelled, "HP rain!" before falling to the ground, Tabuu clapped his hands in applause while Master Hand and Master Core glared at him, "Having fun?" Master Hand asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Why yes!" Tabuu giggled, "Now if you excuse me, I have memories to fix." He snapped his fingers, causing the square, Mallow and Geno to disappear and spun on his heel, "The exit's just to your left." Tabuu said, "Have fun!"

"You jerk…" Link growled as Tabuu disappeared into the woods, Master Hand nodded in agreement and looked at the exit, "I suppose this gives us an idea of what's to come."

"It does?" Falco asked, "How does Mallow and Geno give anyone an idea?"

"Simple, we know all of the fighters that Tabuu have on board." Master Core explained, "Now, we merely have to prepare ourselves for the next battle."

"Which is?" Zelda asked, Crazy Hand giggled and sprinted toward the exit, "A mystery!" Crazy Hand screamed, "Not again!" G-Stone groaned as they were forced to give chase to Crazy Hand once more.

* * *

"You seem to be in a good mood." Snake noted, Tabuu nodded and sat down in his chair, surveying the dining room with a smirk, "I'm guessing that Geno and Mallow really did fight?"

"Surprisingly, yes." Tabuu smirked and moved a piece on a faded chess board, "Although, now that I think about it, Mario could easily be a fake, after all. He never talks, never lets the player see what's he's feeling unless he's in a story moment."

"So? Link's like that."

"True…" Tabuu held up a small trophy version of Marth and waved it in the air, "But with Link, we have a reason for his heroics, he has a story to follow a tradition to honor, while Mario…" he smirked and placed the trophy next to Phoenix who was standing outside a train car, "Has none, no story line, no real reason as to why he saves the day other to help out. Honestly, Mario could learn a thing or two from Link and Zelda."

"Really?" Snake snorted and started to polish his missile launcher, "I thought you said that Link and Zelda were just as bad as Mario."

"They are. But for different reasons." Tabuu said he snapped his fingers, summoning a black laptop that was already turned on, "But now, I have a minion to reprogram."

"Oh?"

"Shadow Link, Mallow struck a deal with me to 'restore' his memories to cheer his brothers up."

"Have fun with that. I'm going to bug Wolf before he fights that bird brain."

"Have fun!"

"…..I'm not sure what's creepier, you acting like you or you acting like an idiot."

"Your choice."

"…Hmph."

* * *

 **With our heroes now in Tabuu's lair-**

 **Tabuu: Awesome lair by the way!**

 **...Get out of my talk box Tabuu.**

 **Tabuu: Never! :D Muhahahaha!**


	13. Chapter 13 Shadows of the Past

**I own nothing but the relentless headaches that stop me from writing... and G-Stone, SJ and the three Four Sword Oc's.**

* * *

"There are two paths…" Zelda said, Link looked up from the ground and frowned, after they had left the Forest Maze they had found themselves inside a stone fortress, with wooden beams looming above them and giant empty rooms. Crazy Hand had attempted to destroy the beams in hopes of find a clue, but none of them broke.

Earning him to complain to Master Hand who ignored him. "I wonder if Pikachu and Samus ran through here." G-Stone mused, Falco groaned and leaned against a wall, "Wherever they went, I hope there having a better time than we are."

"Hey… Do you guys hear that?" Toon asked, Link listened hard and frowned, "No… I hear-," he stopped as he heard a song of despair and emptiness float down from the right path, "Wait, I hear it!" Link said, "It's coming from the right!"

"What?" Toon frowned and pointed to the left, "It's coming from the left!" G-Stone frowned and listened, "I don't really hear anything."

"Really? I hear the song coming from the right." Zelda said. Master Hand frowned while Blue and Vio agreed with Toon, "Perhaps this is your challenge then." Master Hand suggested, "Since I don't hear any music."

"I don't either." Falco said, "I just hear emptiness."

"So it seems like we're going to have to split up." SJ said. Sonic stretched and grinned, "No problem! There's twelve of us! So we'll just go in pairs of six."

"Right. So who gets who?" Vio asked.

"I'll go with the left team." SJ said glancing warily at the path on the left, "I don't trust the darkness ahead."

"Aw man! That means I'm stuck going right!" G-Stone complained, "Meeehhh." Master Hand sighed and said, "I'll go left." While Crazy Hand screeched "Righty tighty! Eheheh!" Master Core frowned and inched toward Crazy Hand, "I do not trust you to behave." Was all Master Core said.

"I'll go right." Sonic offered.

"Meaning that I go left." Falco realized, "Cool…"

"Alright! Let's go!" G-Stone said, "Lead the way Link!" Link nodded and started to walk down the right path with his group while Toon lead the left group.

It wasn't too long until Link felt a cold damp breeze past them by, followed by the quiet churning of gears and water dripping from the ceiling, "Listen! The music's getting louder!" Crazy Hand said,

"Huh…." G-Stone started, "It sounds like Sheik's theme."

"Sheik had a theme?" Crazy Hand questioned, "Why wasn't it in Smash?"

"Because Sheik's theme is a lullaby like song played by a harp. It's not really appropriate for a fighting game." G-Stone explained. Zelda cringed as she stepped in a large puddle of cold water, "Is it me, or is everything around us turning into a temple of water."

Link frowned and looked, Zelda was right, the stone brick walls were slowly degrading and changing as the music and churning grew louder, it was odd…. It seemed like the castle was trying to mimic the Water Temple, but… it seemed different, somehow older.

"Whoa! Who was that!" Sonic exclaimed. Link frowned and asked, "Who was who? I didn't see anything."

"Really?" Sonic frowned and walked around a another giant puddle of water, "Weird… I thought I saw a girl playing a harp up ahead."

"Maybe it was Sheik?" G-Stone suggested, "After all, she does play a harp in Ocarina of Time." Sonic shook his head no, "It definitely wasn't Sheik, from what I saw, she was wearing short sleeves."

"Wonder who she is." Crazy Hand mused, he jumped over a puddle of water and giggled, "The water's rising!"

"What?!" Sonic jumped back and glared down at the water that was slowly filling the corridor as they walked, "I think you should have taken the left path." G-Stone said. Sonic grumbled something under his breath and carefully proceeded.

"We're reaching the end of the tunnel." Master Core announced, giving everyone a jump-scare since he had been lagging behind the group the entire walk.

"It looks like…" G-Stone started to say when they entered the main room, Link looked around and took an unsure step forward, the room, no not a room. It seemed like they were outside, walking on a frozen lake of tranquil water that rippled underneath their footsteps. Up ahead, was a small patch of sand with a rotting tree resting in the middle, seeming out of place with the destroyed ruins scattered around the edges of the room.

"It's an arena." Master Core realized, "A perfectly circular arena." Link frowned and looked at G-Stone who was carrying Sonic and looking around in awe, "G-Stone, do you know who I'm suppose to fight?" Link asked.

G-Stone stopped looking around and frowned, unsure with her answer, "In the game, you fight Dark Link, Link's magic shadow but… I'm not sure, you're from a different era of time, one filled with darkness. So your shadow might not appear."

"So does this mean we can walk on through?" Zelda asked, G-Stone opened her mouth to answer but someone beat her to the punch. "No, you still have to fight someone."

Link looked around the focused on the tree, a tan skinned girl with choppy blond hair that reached her back was standing on one of the croaked tree branches, her posture suggesting that she was ready to spring into action with a calm facade.

"Who are you?" Link asked while G-Stone gasped, "Sheik!" Master Core frowned and quietly argued, "Sheik wasn't that dark a skin tone, nor was she wearing… that outfit."

The girl, Sheik apparently stiffened slightly as Link studied her outfit, it did seem very un-Shiek like, her clothes were mismatch her in color and style, from her dark blue ninja top with a red undershirt that had a long choppy sleeve covering her left arm to her dark purple silk veil, that covered her short grey leggings and midsection with a black and yellow sash.

Her sandals were mismatched as well, with one being a bright yellow and the other being as grey as her seemly wrapped bandages that covered her right arm and hand.

"Also… Sheik doesn't have a dark red scarf, or a mark over her left eye." Zelda pointed out, Sheik adjusted her scarf and pointed to the mark, she had painted three small triangles above her eye and a red teardrop underneath it, "This mark," Sheik explained, "Is the mark of the Sheikhan."

"See! Sheik!" G-Stone said.

"Okay. So if you are Sheik." Sonic started, until Sheik interjected, "Which I am."

"Why are you working for Tabuu?" Sonic questioned, Sheik looked away and said, "I'm not working for Tabuu, I'm merely repaying a favor."

"To?" Zelda asked, "To me." Link braced himself as an older version of Mask appeared from behind the tree, a firm expression fixed on his face as he surveyed the group's shocked expressions. Mask bit back a small smirk and said, "Don't tell me you just expected Link and I to fight."

"Fight?" Zelda looked at Sheik who had jumped down from the tree with her needles, a glint of determination in her eyes, "We're supposed to fight you and Sheik!?"

"Of course, after all. We are your forgotten shadows." Mask said, he unsheathed his sword and readied himself for battle, Link did the same but looked at Sheik who was avoiding eye contact with everyone, possibly out of guilt.

"What are you talking about?" Master Core asked, "Sheik isn't a forgotten fighter." G-Stone nudged him and explained, "Actually, she sort of is, or at least in the Zelda games. Sheik was a created disguise to hide from Gannondorf in the future. But since Link went back and time to prevent Gannondorf from taking over by warning Zelda what happens later, Sheik and all the other events that happened in the Future were more or less erased, the only trace of it happening being the adult era in the timeline."

"But if she was erased from history… Then why is she still here?" Sonic asked.

"That, we do not understand." Sheik said, "All I know is that I woke up in the fourth tournament without any memory of my own." She gestured to Mask saying, "Mask is the only person who remembers me and what I did in his timeline, without his help, I never would have remembered anything."

Mask nodded in agreement and was about to say something when someone yelled, "Cutest couple ever!" causing Sheik and Mask's faces to turn a fire red of embarrassment.

"Whaaa?" Crazy Hand asked as Link felt a Goron sized rock slam into his thought process as Samus and Pikachu appeared from a half sunken ruin, "Admit it! You two are tootttttaaaaalllly a couple!" Samus yelled,

"You have got to be kidding me." Mask groaned as he covered his face in embarrassment as Sheik snapped, "How did you escape!?" then looked to Mask for help.

"Y-you two are dating?" Zelda stuttered, Sheik stiffened and argued, "No! We are merely friends!"

"Who share the same room~!" Samus sang, they jumped and glared at Samus, "How the heck did you know that?!" Mask demanded,

"I didn't." Samus admitted, an evil smile on her face, "I just guessed."

Crazy Hand gasped in horror and screeched, "Teenagers shouldn't share rooms!" G-Stone looked at Crazy Hand before she realized what he meant, "Just because they were sharing rooms doesn't mean that they were sleeping together." G-Stone said.

"I hate you." Sheik said, glaring at Samus with enough venom to kill a cobra, "So. Much."

"Aw! I love you to!" Samus replied, Pikachu laughed nervously and suggested, "Maybe you should stop talking." Samus pouted and was about to say something when Link spotted something metal out of the corner of his eye.

He blocked and glared at a extremely flustered Mask who glared back and growled, "This starts and ends now!"

"Bring it!" Link challenge, he lunged and grimaced as Mask easily dodged and performed a simple 3 hit combo, Link retailed with his wind boomerang, catching Mask off guard as he blocked and found himself being pulled toward Link who performed a charged attack, sending Mask flying slightly.

"Link! Look out!" Link turned and blocked as Sheik kicked his shield at deadly speed, if he hadn't blocked then he surely would have been seeing Triforces right now.

"So a 2v1 eh?" Link question as he shoved Sheik back and tried to counter with his boomerang, Sheik rolled to the side and pulled out three razor sharp needles, "Actually, it's a 2v2." Sheik corrected as Mask recovered and fired an arrow at an oblivious Zelda.

She yelped and dodged the arrow only to crash into Mask's sword as he lunged and side slashed, Link watched as Zelda tumbled then cursed as Sheik did a round house kick, sending him crashing into the water. He opened his eyes just in time to see Sheik hurl her needles at him and sprint forward, her body low to the ground as she pulled out a chain.

Link rolled to the side just as Sheik skidded to a perfect stop and lashed out with her chain, the metal making a slapping sound as it struck the water without enough force to create an ocean of ripples through out the pond.

"Hey Mask!" Link yelled trying to give Zelda a slight edge in her own fight, "I thought it was going to be Hero versus Shadow! Not opposite day!" Mask laughed as Zelda finally landed a blow with her magic, "Of course, Sheik?" Sheik nodded and lashed out with her chain, Link winched and prepared for the familiar attack from Brawl.

It never came, instead it wrapped around his wrest and pulled him toward Sheik who spun and did a spinning back kick, sending him flying toward ducked under a Din's Fireball and smacked Link into Zelda, "Sorry!" Link grunted as he bounced off her and landed in the water, "Not a problem!" Zelda replied as she put up a shield to block six needles aimed for her face.

"This isn't looking good for Team future." G-Stone said, Master Core frowned at the odd name but didn't say anything while Sonic grimaced and nodded in agreement, asking, "Where the heck did Sheik get that power from?"

"Meh, Tabuu probably gave it to her to even the scales." Crazy Hand guessed as Sheik jumped over Link's attack and tackled Zelda, flipping off the fallen Princess to use her needles and attack Link from behind as he fought with Mask.

"I hope Master Hand's group is having a better time than Link and Zelda are." G-Stone said. Sonic nodded in agreement as he watched Zelda finally sent Sheik skidding along the water like a skipped pebble.

* * *

"Sh…a….do…Sh…a…ow"

Shadow groaned and tried to open his eyes, but everything felt numb, and achy. Like someone had hit him over the head to many times with Blue's dumb shock-wave hammer. He really just wanted to relax and take a nap.

"Sh…do…w!" but of course, someone was yelling for him through the fog, with a groan Shadow forced himself to sit up and opened his eyes, "What? I'm sleeping here." Shadow complained, he glared at the person in front of him and bit back a smirk when he saw it was Royal giving him a worried look.

"Geez, what's got you in a twist Roy?" Shadow teased, Royal relaxed slightly but the worried look in his eyes didn't fade, "What do you remember?" Royal asked. Shadow thought for a bit and frowned at the painfully blurry memories bouncing around his head.

"I remember… A boat, the Four losers andddd a ghost." Shadow said, "Why? Did I get amnesia or something?"

"More or less." Shadow jumped as Royal leaned back and a familiar man swept into view, a relaxed smile on his face, "We don't understand it ourselves but when I summoned you, you woke up with different memories instead of your own."

"It was weird dude." Breeze said, "Everyone didn't remember us, and there was a clone of me!" Crimson nodded in agreement and pointed to Red, who was tied up and sitting in the corner. "He didn't even remember getting trapped in that dumb Earth temple!"

"Weird…" Shadow said, he tried to stand up but Navy stopped him, a flicker of concern on his usually calm, collective mask, "Rest, when we found you we ended up fighting." Royal grimaced and looked away, "I ended up cursing you in order to knock you and Red out."

"Well that explains the headaches." Shadow grumbled before he asked, "So I attacked you guys?"

"And beat us up, denied not knowing us along with being on the Four Loser team minus Green who didn't remember us either." Royal explained. Tabuu nodded and tried to explain, "Your memory lose might be because of me. Originally, I only planned to summon the shadow of the Four Swords Hero, at the time, I didn't know you had brothers or any real family. So when you arrived you possessed memories from another world altogether which brought three of the Four Swords heroes here. Later on I summoned your brothers to aid me in our war to be remembered, but they retained their original memories since they were part of a new timeline."

"So that's why Vio, Blue and Red didn't remember us!" Crimson realized, "There different people…." Tabuu nodded and gestured to Shadow, "Shadow was as well, until I restored his memories."

"Well this sounds just peachy." Shadow grumbled, "Anything else happen to me while I was gone?"

"You were attacked by an angle, teamed up with Vaati and some green rodent and we found another Link." Royal replied, "But other than that. Nothing much happened."

"Oh! You forgot the part where you four go attack the Four Swords group!" Tabuu added, Navy and Royal frowned while Crimson rolled his eyes, "Oh please! That never happened!"

"It's about to." Tabuu retorted, they frowned at him as he vanished in a puff of floating green numbers. Breeze sighed and glanced at his sword, "I reaaaaalllly don't want to fight those guys again." Breeze admitted. Navy rolled his eyes and suggested, "You could just stay behind. I'm not in the mood to barbecue anyone."

"Wait, Navy barbecued someone?!" Shadow frowned and complained, "I wannaaa see!"

"Yea! He turned the angle lady into a smoking statue!" Crimson chirped grinning at the memory. Navy sighed and grumbled, "I'm about to turn you into a smoking statue in a moment."

"Oh! Can I pet Nagi if you do?" Crimson asked, Navy glared at him while Royal and Shadow laughed as how excited Crimson was just to pet Navy's snake.

"Jokes aside." Royal said, he helped Shadow to his feet and lead him to a shadowy balcony, "What should we do about the intruders?" Shadow peered over the edge and smirked as Vio and Blue walked inside, followed by a blue bird, a young man with a haughty air around him, a Breeze look alike and a young girl carrying a red device.

"I say, we greet them with a bang." Shadow suggested, summoning a giant bomb as the doors slammed behind the intruders. "I like that idea!" Crimson said, he joined them at the balcony and screamed, "Bombs away!" and hurled his bombs, watching with glee as Shadow's and Royal's bomb landed beside him.

"Oh geez!" the girl yelped as she faded in to the shadows to avoid getting hit by the massive nova explosion. The others in her group weren't as lucky as the girl as they were slammed into the wall from the force of the explosion.

"Alright! Who's there?!" Blue demanded, Vio groaned and grumbled, "Clearly not the shadow dopplegangers." Royal laughed and repeated, "Clearly not the Shadow dopplegangers!" before hurling another giant bomb.

"Scatter!" the man in the formal outfit ordered, Shadow frowned slightly as a name surfaced from the blurred fog in his head, "Master… Hand?" Shadow muttered, the name rolling off his tongue with ease, "Weird." Crimson giggled and said, "Weirdo!"

"I heard that!" Master Hand yelled, Shadow smirked and yelled back, "Good for you!" before he jumped down to the first floor, "Hello losers!" Shadow taunted as he sprinted forward, zeroing in on the blue bird who seemed be called Falco, "Wait what?! Why me!" Falco demanded as he jumped to the side, trying to avoid the frenzied attack.

"Because your annoying!" Crimson supplied before he blasted Master Hand with his Ice rod cackling as Master Hand jumped and muttered, "Cold! Cold, cold, cold!"

"Can I at least get a free shot?!" Falco asked as he danced around Shadow's attacks, "Sure! Why not." Shadow said, jumping back and spreading his arms, waiting with a coy smile as Falco fired, "Ohh! Bad shot birdie!" Royal taunted as a wall of shadows intercepted the gun fire and slammed Falco into a wall.

"Try this on for size!" the Breeze look alike yelled, lunging forward and catching Shadow's sword, with the intent to flip it out of his hands, "Oops!" Shadow said, pretending to be upset of his sword bounced off the floor and skidded toward the girl who was checking something on her game device.

"Got ya!" the boy said, he attacked and frowned as Shadow easily evaded the blow, "Are you sure about that?" Shadow asked, glancing up to Crimson who was happily blasting the ground below him to create random patches of ice.

"Completely!" the boy argued, "Are you Surrrreeee?" Shadow taunted, the boy snarled and was about to do a spin attack when Crimson finally noticed Shadow and screeched, "Fakes deserve to burn!" and happily created a giant wall of flames, separating Shadow from the boy.

"Well that was easy." Shadow mused, he glanced at Royal who was happily toying with Vio, who looked ready to strangle Royal in a couple seconds. "Let's see… Where's Blue?" Shadow looked around and ducked under a wild hammer swing, "Hey batter batter!" Shadow taunted as he shoved Blue and grabbed his hammer, Blue rolled back and glared at Shadow, "I liked it better when you were on OUR side Shadow." Blue growled.

Shadow rolled his eyes and tossed Blue's hammer into the ranging inferno behind him, "Oh please, I was never on your side. "Shadow summoned a ball of dark energy and hurled it at Blue, "We only teamed up to save our comrades!"

"Comrades? What are you talking about?!" Blue demanded as he jumped to the side, trying to avoid the blast of dark magic but failing. "Incoming!" Royal warned as Vio flew over their heads and landed in a heap.

"Vio!" Blue yelled as Royal appeared beside Shadow a worried smirk on his face, "Something wrong bro?" Shadow asked, Royal shrugged and watched as Blue helped Vio to his feet, "Just… trying to shake of something Vio said."

"Really? Since when does the know it all speedster listen to Bookworm?" Shadow teased, Royal scowled at him and said, "Just for that, you can have fun beating up that Master weirdo." Before he sprinted forward toward Vio and Blue.

"Fine! But it'll be a piece of cake!" Shadow yelled, "Oh really?"

Shadow spun around, a playful smirk on his face as his hands pulsed with dark magic, "Really-," Shadow started to say when Master Hand tossed a card under his feet and sent him flying upward into the high ceiling, Shadow yelped and jumped off, aiming for a wall covered in shadows before Master Hand could summon another card of doom.

"Have a nice flight?" Navy asked as Shadow materialized beside him, Shadow glared at him before he joined Crimson who was cackling as Falco tried to hit him with his gun, "This is fun!" Crimson giggled.

"Yea, yea." Shadow teased, he was about to say more when a bright green object caught his attention, "Oh geez!" Shadow tackled Crimson to the ground just as a ball soared over head. It slammed into a wall and bounced over to Navy and Breeze who flatten themselves against the wall to avoid getting hit.

"What was that?!" Crimson demanded, Shadow growled and peered through the balcony bars, where Master Hand was waiting with a green ball in hand, "A pest." Shadow replied before he jumped down and fired a blast of dark magic at Master Hand who dodged the attack and glared at Shadow, "Impressive, you fight without your trademark weapon." Master Hand mused.

"Oh, you mean this?" Shadow questioned, he summoned a bomb and hurled it at Master Hand who caught it and crumpled under its weight, "Curses…" Master Hand growled as the bomb blinked a dangerous red. Shadow smirked and was about to say something when someone slammed into him, sending him rolling briefly before he rolled back onto his feet.

"Wow. How the heck are you able to stand?" Shadow asked once he saw it was Vio who had attacked him, Vio said nothing and merely notched his bow, Shadow smirked and was about to taunt him when something pulled him back. Fast.

"Crimson!" Shadow yelled as he was dragged across the floor and slammed into a wall, Crimson looked up from admiring the blazing inferno on the floor that was soon threatening to engulf the room they were in and scowled when he saw the culprit, "Back off phony!" Crimson snapped as he fired a blast of ice magic at the fake Breeze before jumping down from the second floor to join in the fun.

"I have an idea!" the fake Breeze yelled as he blocked a wild swing from Crimson who sneered and used his Ice Rod as an extra sword, "How about you chill out?" Royal suggested as he easily parried every attack Blue had, infuriating the boy even more as he performed a small jig while avoiding his attacks.

"Shut up!" Blue growled, Royal stuck his tongue out and uttered a curse, earning a groan from Vio who recognized the familiar incantation, "Brace yourselves." Vio warned.

"SJ, please tell me that your ready now!" Master Hand yelled as Shadow managed to finally land an attack on Master Hand, "Ready! Sorry, I had to switch my party around and chain the attacks." SJ apologized.

"Chain attacks?" Royal questioned, he pushed Blue and sprinted toward SJ who glanced up and tapped something on her game device, "See ya! Have fun with Neku!" SJ chirped just as Royal lunged with his sword.

Shadow flinched at the name and blinked in surprise as the world around him faded into dark and was replaced by city streets and the chattering of people around them.

"Where… Am I?" Shadow asked as he spun around, trying to make sense of his new surroundings. "Ready Neku?" Shadow turned around and flinched as a boy with bright orange hair attacked him.

"Not again!" Shadow yelled as the boy chained his attacks with great skill.

* * *

"Din's Fire!" Zelda yelled as she attempted to shove Sheik back, it worked but it barely gave Zelda time to catch her breath. Sheik had proved herself to be a great fighter, she had easily pinned Zelda against the tree until she used Farore's wind to teleport out of the way

She had also proved that she could take Link on without too much trouble despite her lack of weapon. Mask proved be a formidable foe as well, seemly knowing everything about Zelda's move set and predicting her attacks with flawless ease.

If it wasn't for the fact that she was amazed by how Sheik and Mask worked together she might have been feeling frustrated and betrayed by Sheik's choice.

"Break time's over." Sheik said, delivering a swift round house kick to Zelda's head, Zelda put up a shield and winched from the force of Sheik's kick, Zelda tried to retaliate with Nayru's Love to push her back but the diamond shield fizzled and shattered into powder which promptly vanished, "W-what?" Zelda gasped, Sheik relaxed and stood straight, "It appears that you've exhausted your magic." Sheik mused, she glanced behind her where Link and Mask were still fighting, "I wonder how long until they collapse."

Zelda frowned slightly and studied Link and Mask, who were still battling but showed signs of fagite, slowing down slightly.

"It appears that we might have a draw." Sheik noted, Zelda looked at Sheik in surprise, "What makes you say that?"

"Simple, I defeated you and Link is about to defeat Mask, who has also exceeded his magical limits to keep his adult form stable." Sheik explained, she folded her arms and glared up at the sky, "I wonder what the puppet master shall do next…"

Zelda glanced behind her where Sonic, G-Stone, Crazy Hand, Master Core, Samus and Pikachu were watching, or trying to watch since G-Stone was furiously mashing buttons on her Gameboy a look of panic on her face while Master Core gave unhelpful suggestions. She jumped when she heard a loud screech of metal and something land behind her.

"Finally!" Link panted, he put his sword away and glared at Mask who was breathing just as hard as he was, Mask glowered at him and tried to sit up but collapsed, "About time!" Sonic yelled as the magic barrio separating them disappeared and allowed them to be approached.

"Har-har." Mask grumbled, flinching slightly at the word 'time' Sheik sent him an apologetic look before she tossed a key to Sonic, "Here, this key will allow you to meet back up with your comrades as well as advance to the next rounds." Sheik explained.

"Thanks!" Sonic said.

"Adventure!" Crazy Hand yelled happily running toward a fancy red door that looked a like the doors in Subspace, Zelda stood up and followed her group, she couldn't help but feel slightly happy for Sheik as she glanced behind her, just in time to see Sheik help Mask stand up with a small genuine smile.

"Hey! This looks like…" Sonic started then he frowned and tried to place the location, "Weird… I feel like I know, and that I've been here before but… I'm drawing a major blank."

G-Stone looked up and studied the odd landscape around them, it was a bamboo forest that forced them to walk in a single line through the thin trees as they tried to find a clearing and oh'ed slightly, "It's okay Sonic, you were here before, where? I'm not sure since I just remember what happens here. But something in the comic world erased a lot of original places."

"So me forgetting this place is normal?" Sonic questioned. G-Stone nodded, "Sort of, I guess Scourge's appearance knocked some comic history back into your brain since in the game the closest bamboo first was some level in Unleashed, which may or may not be true since I've never played Unleashed."

"Gee, that's helpful." Crazy Hand grumbled, Sonic and G-stone glared at him and resumed talking, "So what happens here?" Sonic asked.

"When you, Sally, Tails and some other Freedom Fighters arrive you fight off Scourge's new gang after Fiona Fox lures you through the tightly packed forest."

"So the next round is Sonic vs Scourge." Master Core mused he frowned slightly adding, "That doesn't seem right…Surely Scourge will have a trump card like Mask and Mallow."

"Well whatever it is-," Sonic started to say when a green blur slammed into him, knocking the line backwards as everyone toppled over from the force of the attack. "That was convent." Zelda groaned as she tried to push Crazy Hand off of her, he giggled and muttered something about dominoes before looking back at the front of the line, "Long time no see, faker!" Scourge sneered, Sonic growled and tried to stand up, but Scourge shoved him back down, "After that long trip, how about you kick back a little? Eh Blue?"

"Get off me!" Sonic snapped, spin dashing upwards and slamming into Scourge's jaw, knocking him backward. Scourge growled but quickly recovered yelling, "Catch me if you can!" and disappearing into the woods, "Get back here faker!" Sonic yelled giving chase despite Master Core's annoyed warning of it being a trap.

* * *

"…Can you please stop looking over my shoulder!" SJ snapped, she took a step forward and risked a glare at Master Hand, Falco, Blue, Toon and Vio who jumped and looked away, SJ growled softly and resumed making slashing motions with her DS pen as she battled Navy who proved to be a different difficultly level compared to Crimson who had easily been erased within a couple minutes.

"We were merely hoping to assist you in your fight." Master Hand said, nervously smoothing his sweater as SJ tried to kick him only to miss, "Yea!" Falco agreed.

"First off, none of you have played TWEWY let only a game that relays on the player's playset than others." SJ started she breathed a small sigh of relief as she finished off Navy and started the next battle with Royal, "Besides. You guys don't even know what types of pins I'm using!"

"I just wanted to watch." Blue grumbled, he glanced at SJ and asked, "So how many are left to fight?"

"Royal and Breeze. Shadow and Crimson were a piece of cake since they were both on the field." SJ replied, Master Hand nodded and looked around at the gloomy room they were in, trying to distract himself from the worries bouncing around his head. They were playing Tabuu's game which could go on forever if Tabuu wished it, he was the puppet master once more and now everyone was a puppet, it wasn't just Master Hand being used along with Wario, Ganondorf, Bowser and Mr. Game n watch.

Everyone he had watched battle for years were at the mercy of Tabuu. It sort of scared him after all, more lives on the line meant more creations destroyed. Or, at least it did for Master Hand.

With a muffled sigh Master Hand looked up to see SJ relax and close her 3ds, "Beat them." SJ said, Vio frowned slightly and looked around, "Are they going to show up…?"

"Not likely," SJ said with a slight grimace, "In the game you have to erase noise to stop them from erasing Neku and imprinting living humans. They don't ever show up again."

"So Shadow's dead?" Falco questioned, SJ nodded and managed a reassuring smile, "Don't worry though. I have a feeling that they were sent back to their world instead of being permanently erased."

"Well that's nice to know." Blue grumbled, Master Hand sighed and glanced at a space themed door that appeared at the top of the grand staircase, "Come along, Tabuu's tournament isn't ending here." Blue and Vio nodded in agreement and the group started up the stairs, retrieving Red who was still knocked out and gagged.

"Sort of wish Shadow stuck around longer." Toon grumbled as they walked down a stainless steel hallway with future like lights and panels, it reminded Master Hand of the Star Fox stages.

"Hey… I know this place!" Falco realized, "We're in the Star Fox main ship! Which means…"

"You'll be fighting Wolf next." SJ guessed, "Good luck, I've never played a Star Fox game in my life."

"So your sitting on the sidelines?" Master Hand asked, SJ nodded and looked around the loading bay, "Pretty much, G-Stone does have a game which is sort of like Star Fox, but I'd need to Streetpass with other people in order to play it properly."

"Well, at least we have a nice view." Blue pointed out, an awe struck smile on his face as he surveyed the glowing stars and planets off in the vast reaches of outer space.

"I've never seen so many stars…" Toon gasped.

"Hey my ship!" Falco climbed inside and grinned as it started up, "Hey, maybe I can take you guys for a-," before Falco could finish his ship shot forward into a smaller hallway built for ship launching, Master Hand looked out the window and saw Falco's ship turn around in an attempt to return to the main ship.

However, a batter looking ship slammed into him, and fired at him.

"And there's Wolf." SJ said, Master Hand frowned as Falco dove under Wolf's ship and retaliated with a barrage of blue gunshots. "Space fight!" SJ cheered while Toon winched and closed his eyes, "I'm getting a headache…"

"It's probably from the high tech electronics around the ship." Master Hand explained, "It'll go away as soon as Falco finishes his fight with-,"

KABOOM!

"That was fast." SJ noted as Falco's ship exploded and a grand red door appeared beside them, "Wha…" Master Hand stammered as Toon guessed, "I guess Wolf got a couple upgrades." And headed for the door.

"How…?" Master Hand asked as SJ dragged him toward the door, "I guess Falco's cockiness got the better of him." SJ said, "Either that or, he's really bad at defense."

"But…"

"Master Hand. Get over it."

"No! That was impossible! No one could die that quickly-,"

"He just did."

"But…!"

"Get over it!"

* * *

It was official. Sonic hated running through bamboo, he had crashed into at least 12 when trying to keep up with Scourge whose green fur was easy to lose in the green shaded trees with made no sense since he was wearing a pitch black jacket which should have been easier to spot than his fur.

Sonic bit back a growl as he slammed into another bamboo stalk and stepped around it, "Never pictured you as a chicken Scourge!" Sonic yelled as he nearly crashed into another bamboo stalk, Sonic smirked as he heard something snap and a snippy, "Shut up!"

"I would but you're really playing the chicken card!" Sonic retorted, Scourge said nothing as they finally entered a clearing, "Finally! No more bamboo!"

"Really? You were worried about bamboo?" Scourge sneered, Sonic glared at him but managed a causal smile, it wouldn't do him any good to get riled up now, "Well, should I be worried about anything else?"

"How about me Blue?" Sonic spun around ready to fight as a black combat sole came into his line of vision, Sonic frowned as he jumped back and looked at a red fur foxed, wearing a short leather combat tank and skinny jean leggings, she smirked and playfully moved a lock of hair out of her cold blue eyes.

Sonic frowned and felt like an idiot when he asked, "Um… Who are you again?" Scourge huffed in annoyance and spin dashed into the back of Sonic's head, "Here!" Scourge snapped, "Maybe that will jog your memory!"

"Sorry, still getting a blank beside her being your girlfriend." Sonic admitted, "Then again, I can barely remember you either…"

The fox sighed and stomped on Sonic's head, a slow smirk curling on her lips, "Apparently I'm that forgettable, despite being your _girlfriend."_

"Girl…friend?" Sonic winched as foggy memories appeared, showing the fox, Scourge and a couple people who Sonic didn't recognized. Sonic felt his hands curl into fists as a heart-broken Tails appeared and pleaded with Fiona about something only to be coldly rejected and slapped.

"Now I remember you!" Sonic pushed himself up and rolled back to glare at Scourge and Fiona Fox, an ex-freedom fighter, "You're Fiona Fox!"

Fiona clapped her hands with a pleased smirk while Scourge wrapped an arm around Fiona, pulling her close, "About time! Apparently those higher ups didn't completely erase us after all!"

"Erase you?" Sonic frowned and jumped to his feet, "Yea right! I can't believe I could forget jerks like you!" and spin dashed into Scourge, knocking him to the ground and ducked under Fiona's high kick, he winched as she quickly brought her foot down.

Sonic bit back a frown of worry as he was slammed into the ground and picked up by Scourge, "This might be the easiest battle ever!" Scourge declared, "Without your little team your useless!"

"You used to be too." Sonic reminded him, Fiona rolled her eyes and leaned against a bamboo stalk, "Speaking of team, where's yours? I don't see anyone coming to your rescue."

"Well, when you have a speed demon like me." Sonic joked, "It's easy to lose track!" Scourge scowled then yelped gibberish as Sonic broke free of his grasp and grabbed him, feeling slightly thankful that they were fighting Super Smash bros style as he flung Scourge into Fiona and homing attacked them both.

"Speed demon?" Fiona questioned as she sat up, gently shoving Scourge back onto the grass, "And here I thought you were just a goody two shoes."

Scourge chuckled and tackled Sonic, they wrestled around on the ground for a bit before Fiona swooped in and stomped on Sonic's back when he was on top of Scourge, Scourge grinned and shoved Sonic off of him and landed a couple punches before Sonic retaliated with a head butt and they resumed wrestling around on the ground.

"Babe, I thought you wanted to beat Sonic to a pulp, not wrestle like little kids." Fiona said, Scourge glowered at her and was about to retort when a hole appeared underneath them.

"What the-," Scourge yelped as he and Sonic fell into darkness, "I'm guessing this wasn't in the plan!" Sonic yelled as they free-fall and bounced off stone plants, "Ya think!?" Scourge snapped.

"Scourge?!" Fiona yelled, she frowned when no one yelled back at her, or yelled at each other, "What's going on…" Fiona muttered, she folded her arms and looked around trying to find a note from that wacko Master Tabuu, he seemed to hate Sonic just as much as they did but would he really interfere with a fight? Then again it could be revenge for Scourge wrapping Tabuu around his finger, even more so when Fiona arrived and took over the smooth talking in hopes of restoring their old gang.

Apparently, that hadn't sat well with Tabuu since now her boyfriend and the annoying blue blur had both disappeared. "Hopefully Scourge and Sonic managed to lose the rest of-," Fiona started to say when she heard the sound of bamboo breaking.

Fiona suppressed a groan and sprinted away heading toward the backup Tabuu had summoned just in case they needed a quick exit. "He better have a good explanation on this." Fiona grumbled as she quickly closed the door behind.

* * *

"Sonic! Ya here!" G-stone frowned when no one replied while Master Hand sighed and said, "He probably ran ahead after he beat up Scourge."

"I don't know…" Zelda said, "Sonic would have waited for us if he did beat Scourge… This place is a maze and Sonic knows that it's important to stick together."

"Besides, if he and Scourge were fighting and he did win then why aren't the bamboo sticks broken?" Link added, he carefully poked one and looked at Master Hand who was starting to look worried himself.

"Maybe they ran through the door and are fighting in the next room?" Pikachu suggested, finding the lack of destroyed nature unnerving, from what he had heard from Zelda Scourge was an opportunist, which meant he would have used everything to his advantage.

Yet everything looked completely untouched. Pikachu sighed and studied the door, "Well. We might as well see what the next room has in store." Master Hand said, they nodded in agreement and entered the next room, it was very… open Pikachu looked around in awe and then frowned as he recognized the tranquil water, mossy stone platform they were on and the foreboding sky drop.

"Are we… in the great maze again?" Zelda questioned, Link groaned and looked around, "Hey wait! Where's Samus?!" G-Stone asked.

"She said she was going to bug Sheik and Mask about their relationship." Pikachu answered before he looked around at the three doors around them.

"I wonder if the others have come through here." Master Core mused,

"And if so… What door did they go through?" Zelda questioned, G-Stone looked around and pointed to the door above them, "Up there maybe? It seems to be the only door disturbed."

"Agree. Let's see if we can catch up to them post-haste." Master Core said, G-Stone and Pikachu snickered at 'post-haste' and walked inside the door.

* * *

"Hey! Isn't this the-," Toon started to say when Master Hand nodded and looked around at the Great Maze doors, "It appears that Tabuu recreated the Great Maze, giving us more opinions for the next battle." Master Hand said. Vio sighed and sat down on the mossy stone bridge, studying the three red doors floating on three platforms above their head, "So? Which door do we choose?" Blue asked.

"Here's a better question, who do we have to fight next?" Red and Blue looked at Vio who was tapping the stone floor, deep in thought, "We've faced the people connected to our past, so whose left?" Toon glanced at Master Hand who stiffened and looked away, "Maybe Ta-,"

"No." Master Hand said his voice sounding strained before he recovered, "Tabuu's the final boss, he wouldn't end it at a couple measly rounds. Knowing him, he's pulling more puppets to fully torture us."

"More... puppets?" Red questioned, "Tabuu uses puppets? I thought he was more of a teddy bear person!" SJ rolled her eyes and said, "I'm going to check on the others. BRB." and disappeared into the shadows, just as someone yelled. "Hey! I don't have any teddy bears!" they jumped as Tabuu appeared and smirked at them, or to be exact, at Master Hand, "I have puppets, very helpful _puppets_."

Master Hand tensed and suppressed a growl as Tabuu walked behind him, purposely positioning himself behind Master Hand to casually lean over his stiffened shoulder, "Right Master Hand? You used to be a puppet." Tabuu said, his voice dripping with slight venom as he flicked a lock of Master Hand's hair, " _Used_ to." Master Hand growled.

"But you could be a puppet again." Tabuu reminded him, "All I need to do is use this golden little chain and-," Master Hand spun around and summoned a card wall to push him into the water. Tabuu laughed and flicked a golden chain in the air before he hurled it at the approaching wall, destroying it with barely any effort. "Oops!" Tabuu sneered, "Did pinch a nerve?"

"Shut. Up." Master Hand snarled, Toon frowned slightly as he noticed Master Hand's posture shaking... As if he was scared of Tabuu, "You know, you left a bunch of puppets for me to use. Broken, little, tools to bring you down." Tabuu folded his arms and adopted a thoughtful pose, "Poor little things! Forced to stay behind while their _heroes_ crash and burn." he sent a sly glance at Master Hand then studied the baffled Red and Blue, "Then again, I suppose your still getting over those old scars I gave you."

"What scars?" Toon questioned, Master Hand quickly shoved his right hand into his pocket and retorted, "It's none of your concern Toon."

"Oh yea!" Tabuu realized, "You weren't there! You, Wolf and Jigglypuff escaped our rein of terror!"

Vio frowned and glanced at Master Hand, "Our? Master Hand, what is Tabuu talking about?" Tabuu made a tsk sound and playfully folded his arms behind his back, "Apparently, your just as forgotten as I am." Tabuu mused, "Or at least, your work is." he shoved Master Hand aside, nearly knocking him into the tranquil water that surrounded the bridge and bent down to lock eyes with Vio, "You see, during the start of my 'collect' I suppose, Master Hand and I formed a deal, he helped me take over the world of Smash and I cleaned up the place, allowing him to start new and fresh." Red looked at Toon and grabbed his arm, "I-i don't like the sound of this."

"Of course, everyone assumed that Master Hand was- actually." Tabuu slowly broke eye contact to glance back at Master Hand who was somehow still fighting to regain his balance, "Did anyone know what was going on? If I remember correctly... The entire story was a mess... the only people knowing about your involvement being Gannondork, Wario and Bowser, and even then you were hidden from the cameras. And after that everyone assumed you were merely a 'pawn' from the start."

"So you used Master Hand as a cover! Big deal!" Blue snapped although he didn't sound very angry. Tabuu rolled his eyes and returned his gaze to Vio, "Your familiar with betrayal, planning ahead and posing as the 'bad guy' right Vio?" Vio stiffly nodded and clenched his fists, Shadow's 'death' still very clear in his mind.

"So guess who deiced to change his mind halfway through to be the 'hero'." Tabuu glared at Master Hand and sighed, standing up to his full height to walk around the bridge, "It was so very disappointing! My business partner who desperately tried to cloak himself in the shadows for a better world, a union maybe. Betrayed me. We used to be good friends. Such. Good. Friends. We both desired creation, recreating and spreading our art around our world. In different views of course." Tabuu paused and toed the water with a slippered foot, a unreadable expression on his face as he watched the water ripple.

"We were artists, with different hobbies of course. One with collecting and gathering ideas-,"

"Stealing." Master Hand interjected, "Ideas." Tabuu ignored him and kept talking, "And one who enjoyed to create a stage from nothing but scratch, it hurt you so much to see that the game changed so much, from that cute little playground of blocks to a digital monster with a 'story' for a fighting game that had no conflict." Vio bit his lip and said, "So Master Hand joined your evil plan to take back his art, since no one seemed to appreciate it."

"More or less." Tabuu replied, "Of course, his annoying programmed side to take control and be the 'Master' overrode his close friendship with me, after we destroyed a couple places Master Hand flipped sides, forcing me to control him like a puppet... And so many others." Red looked at Master Hand in horror while Toon grabbed his sword, then relaxed in disbelief, "That's right... You took the trophies of other players and turned them into giant monsters to further your goals."

"Correct~!" Tabuu sang he leaned back from the water and looked at Master Hand, "It must be very disturbing to know that the one who created this whole mess, is going to finish his artist dream." Master Hand paled and tried to say something but Tabuu yelled, "See ya! Wouldn't wanna be ya!" and disappeared. No one said anything for a moment, the news of Master Hand actually plotting Smash's downfall heavy on their minds it wasn't until Red asked, "What... What did Tabuu mean by scars?" that anyone started to drift out of their thoughts and move, "It's nothing of your concern." Master Hand muttered, heading toward the right door and opening it.

Vio and Toon exchanged a look before looking at Red and Blue, "So... Should we...?" Toon started to say when he trailed off, "We don't have a choice." Vio muttered, "Besides, when we meet up with the others... We can ask them with really happened."

Red opened his mouth to say something but Blue cut him off saying, "Master Hand isn't going to talk Red. If he did, then why should we trust him? We're outsiders, and Toon wasn't there, his knowledge could be completely different from what actually happened." Red frowned but nodded in agreement, they followed after Master Hand with uneasy looks shared between the four.

* * *

 **Dun dun dun! The plot thickens!... Again! Hopefully Tabuu's speech was understandable... . I sort of had to rewrite some parts since Crazy Hand and Master Core wanted to switch parties and join the Four Sword gang.**

 **Also sorry for giving Falco's fight any screen time, I never played Star Fox and just saw a couple clips showing it as a arcade shoot em up game like Mii-Force, so I just blew him up since I saw a clip where Falco got destroyed because Fox didn't help him out. . sorry about that.  
**


	14. Chapter 14, The Stage is Set

**A wild chapter appears! Which doesn't own anything but the few OC's.**

* * *

The dark hallway seemed to go on for ages, and the recurring sound of something scraping on the wall as they walked past dim lanterns wasn't helping Dark Pit's foul mood, or lightening the contents he was carrying.

After Tabuu had destroyed Master Hand and Crazy Hand he had walked Dark Pit back to his base, to show off his power and decorating skills. He hated to admit it, but Tabuu did have an eye for color.

That aside, he had Dark Pit dispose of Marth and asked him to do one last favor before he released Pit from his clutches. This favor was nothing but annoying since he had ordered Vaati to accompany him toward the trophy room.

So far the walk had been silent, the only noise coming from their sandals as they walked across the rusted metal floor, which was slowly turning into a translucent hexagon floor that revealed black nothingness below them.

"Here we are." Vaati said, breaking the stiff silence with a small huff, Dark Pit looked up and stiffened at the collection of trophies, they were arranged like prized collection, each trophy having its own slot, name card and of course trophies, which were the defeated Smashers that had been attacked at the start of the invasion.

"How did he…" Dark Pit started to ask when Vaati walked up to a small control panel and studied it with a frown, "Odd. Tabuu merely said to walk between the rows and pick out the Fighters on the list."

Dark Pit joined him and uneasily looked at a red button with a note written in 0 and 1's beside it, he pushed it and felt like passing out as the room started to spin and warp until he and Vaati were standing inside the trophy case. Which was now arranged like a walk through museum, terrified and surprised Fighters surrounded them as they uneasily walked toward the end of the line.

"I thought Link and Mario were storing the defeated Fighters in _our_ trophy case." Dark Pit said, "So how did Tabuu get his hands on them?"

Vaati shrugged and tapped the King Dedede's glass, "Who knows? And or cares, I just want to get out of this death trap and get ready to beat Toon Link to a pulp."

"I thought you hated the Link with the talking hat."

"I do, but it'll be nearly impossible to get into a fight with him now." Vaati grumbled, he sighed and summoned a flame as the lights started to fade, nearly sending them into complete darkness. "Geez, for someone obsessed with collecting, Tabuu fails at having proper lighting." Dark Pit grumbled.

He pushed open a door labeled, "New Entries." And flinched at the sight of Pit's surprised face looking back at him, his body angled at an awkward position as he seemed to fly backward, away from Dark Pit.

"You still have those Shadow Bugs?" Vaati asked, Dark Pit recovered and glared at Vaati, before he held up the sliver container, "No, I lost it on the way here." Dark Pit retorted.

Vaati glared back at him and pulled out a piece of paper, "Tabuu wanted Owl, Lucina, Roy, Ike, Gannondorf and Mewtwo." Vaati instructed, Dark Pit sighed and put on a pair of gloves before he opened the container and carefully scooped out a tablespoon of squirming bugs, "Be careful!" Vaati warned.

Dark Pit growled and snapped "I am!" as he walked toward Lucina's trophy and poured the tablespoon on her head, the bugs tensed then disappeared into the statues as Lucina's pose relaxed and stood up straight, her blue eyes turning a dark purple then back to blue.

He repeated the same action with the other trophies, watching as they came to life and their eyes flashed purple. Once everyone on the list was revived Dark Pit looked at Vaati who cleared his throat and ordered, "Statues, report to Tabuu at once!" they nodded and marched down the hallway in a perfect line.

"Wow. Wonder why he didn't use them earlier." Dark Pit said, Vaati shrugged and headed for the exit, "Because he's a nut-job."

"Gee, that solves everything." Dark Pit grumbled, he glanced at Pit before he chased after Vaati while thinking _"Soon… Soon this whole mess will be over."_

* * *

"Does anyone else get the feeling that Tabuu enjoys making everything complex and impossible?" Red asked as they ran into a dead end, "Because that's what I'm starting to get from this."

"Yea… This is like the fifth dead end we ran into." Blue noted, Master Hand frowned and looked around the narrow moss covered hallway, "Something's wrong, the original Great Maze had us running through older sections of the world and fighting enemies but now…"

"It's quiet…. To quiet." Toon relaxed, Vio glanced up and screamed, "Watch out!" startling everyone into taking a step back as sword wielding puppets sliced the air, "What are they?!" Blue demanded as he slammed the front of his hammer into one of the puppets, knocking it into its comrades, snapping the thin puppet strings.

"Their Puppits!" Master Hand explained as he summoned a wall to prevent the Puppits from chasing after them, "They have fairly low health but they can fire lasers."

"So why aren't we fighting them? We can afford a couple battles." Vio stated, Master Hand pointed behind the Puppits where the dead end was slowly breaking apart, "That's why." Master Hand said, as a red faced beast broke through the wall and let loose a fierce roar. "Running seems like a good idea now." Blue said.

"What is that!?" Red asked, Master Hand sighed and turned around, "An angry Towtwow, their dangerous when angered and deal electric damage."

"Run!" Toon ordered as the Towtow slammed through Master Hand's wall and chased after them, "Don't need to tell us twice!" Blue yelped as he jumped to avoid a blast of pure electricity, the ran back the way they came and stumbled into the Rest Area, "Alright…" Vio panted, "So there are monsters in the maze."

"Noted." Toon gasped, Red nodded in agreement and said, "So what should we do? The hallways are waaaaay to narrow for us to defend ourselves." He glanced at Master Hand for his opinion when no one answered, "Hey! He's gone!"

Blue looked around then back at the slowly closing door, "He must have tripped!" he grabbed the door and tried to pull it open, "Come on! We have to help him!"

"Hold on…" Blue paused and glared at Vio who didn't seem too motive to rescue Master Hand, "What is it Brainaic?" Blue asked.

"What if he purposely ditched us?" Vio theorized, "After all, he didn't seem too keen to speak with us after Tabuu revealed Master Hand's past." Red frowned and nervously rubbed his arm, "Tabuu was lying, Master Hand doesn't seem like the kind of guy to betray others."

"But if he was innocent, then why act guilty? He barely defended himself during Tabuu's statement" Vio argued, Blue nodded in agreement while Toon frowned and folded his arms, "You have a point… but maybe we should check with the others to see what really happened."

Red fiercely nodded in agreement and pulled the door open, "Yea! Tabuu's probably just lying!" Toon nodded in agreement while Vio said nothing, deep in thought as he followed his comrades back inside the maze.

* * *

Tabuu chuckled and changed the screen after hearing Red's bold statement, "Cute." Tabuu mused, he looked up from his computer and moved a chess piece on a chess board, then frowned and mumbled, "Why do bad guys have chess pieces for their evil plans?" before he snapped his finger and caused the board to vanish.

"Tabuu!"

Tabuu glanced up and waved at Dark Pit and Vaati who were being followed by his new puppets, "Long time no see." Tabuu teased, Vaati glared at him and turned away, grumbling something about needing to prepare while Dark Pit folded his arms, "My payment?"

"Of course!" Tabuu waved his hand and Pit's trophy landed on the marble floor with a thud, "But if he starts his goodie-two-shoes act I'm taping his mouth shut." Tabuu warned, a hint of disgust in his voice as he freed Pit from his trophy state.

The angle fell backward and hastily got to his feet, "Wha- where?" Pit babbled as he spun around, trying to quickly examine the majestic computer room, Tabuu felt a bubble of pride as Pit slowed long enough to study the butterfly designs on the lower walls.

Tabuu sighed and said "You're in Subspace." Causing Pit to stop and look up the holographic stairs in shock, "Who are you?" Pit demanded, Dark Pit grabbed his arm and sent him a warning glare before he looked back at Tabuu, "We're out."

Tabuu nodded and watched Pit's shocked expression turn to distrust, "Of course, I'm sure you and Pit have a lot of catching up to do." Dark Pit nodded in agreement and glared at the stationary puppets, "Lucina? Why is she here?" Pit asked,

"You ask to many questions." Dark Pit grumbled as he shoved past them and dragged Pit out the room. Tabuu waited a beat before he faced his puppets a confident smirk on his face, "Mewtwo, your assigned to the Research Facility where you shall encounter and defeat Pikachu." Tabuu pointed to a video screen showing Master Core's frazzled group, they were breathing hard and checking over their shoulder while Master Core put up a shield, trying to protect them from some unseen monster.

Mewtwo nodded and teleported to the Facility, "Fire Emblem Squad, your job is to rat out Phoenix, Shulk and the Computer Virus twins." Tabuu ordered, "Force them into the Great Maze then finish them off!"

Marth salute and marched out with his team, "And now, to deal with a pesky shadow." Tabuu mused as he glanced at a blurry computer screen, showing SJ wandering around the Lost Zoo. She seemed unharmed but confused as to why she was there in the middle of nowhere.

"I love being a puppet master~!" Tabuu sang as he summoned the Porky Statue, SJ turned around and froze in fear as the stone monster destroyed a rusted truck. Tabuu frowned slightly as SJ reacted and disappeared into the shadows, bobbing and weaving around the fallen remains of the rotting zoo in an attempt to escape.

* * *

"Booorrred." Phoenix looked up from her book and glared at Vivra, who was hanging from the train ceiling, "Booorrrreeed!" Vivra whined, Phoenix sighed and tried to ignore the pesky virus.

Of course that became impossible since Vivra went to bother Vicross, "Hey Vicross! Hey Vicross! Hey-," Vicross looked up an blankly stared at her, "Yes? What request do you have?"

"I'm bored!"

"I see." Vivra scowled as Vicross returned to re-coding Tabuu's world, "Cooomeee on! Let's have a battle!"

"No."

"Pleeaasee? I'll let you cosplay as Red again!"

Vicross froze then resumed coding, "No."

Vivra whined and turned to Shulk who was modifying his Monado, "Shulk! Can I-," Shulk barely looked up as he said "No Vivra."

"Oh come on! I bet I can totally improve that dumb-,"

"I said no."

"UGH!" Vivra flopped on the floor and grumbled, "Sticks in the mud." Phoenix sighed and closed her book, "How about you read a book? I have a couple you might like." Vivra gave her a blank look and looked out the window.

Phoenix frowned and looked at Vicross who bluntly said, "Reading words is unimportant unless needed for blackmail, we were created to read data and code, which translate to binary."

"What's binary?" Shulk asked.

"0's and 1's forming a word." Vicross replied, he glanced up and said, "Enemies approaching, all from Fire Emblem." Vivra brightened and formed a computer screen, "Whoa! They have a huge army!"

Vicross nodded while Phoenix analyzed the battle field, it was a mountain landscape, giving them cover but no real protection if they played offensive.

"Alright, we should lure them to us and-,"

"That plan shall fail." Vicross interrupted, "They have bow men, and only one of can use long range attacks, putting us at a serve disadvantage."

"So what should we do then?" Shulk asked, "We have to fight."

"We can't, we're outnumbered and-," Vicross started to say when Vivra jumped out of the train window, summoned a long spear with numbers dancing around the blade and screamed, "CHARGE!" sprinted toward the front lines.

"…Does not compute." Vicross said as they watched the small black hedgehog dance around blades and attack, deleting the enemies with ease.

Phoenix glanced at the battle map then at Vicross, "Can you create a weapon like Vivra's?"

"No, I can recode yours so that you can easily form a path through them however."

"Do it." Phoenix ordered, Vicross glared at her but nodded, creating a small storm of numbers that swarmed over to Shulk's and her weapons, "Complete." Vicross said.

"Let's go then!" Shulk said, Phoenix nodded in agreement and followed Vivra's lead, only she took a discreet path to pincer the other solders while Shulk used his long range blade to form a distraction.

So far it was working, Phoenix could see one of the crown generals in sight she just needed to push through a little bit more and then-,

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Phoenix spun around, Levin ready and paled when she found another Levin gently touching her throat, Owl smirked at her and jumped back, spell book in hand, "Owl! You're… Alive?"

"A chatty little pest aren't you?" Owl taunted, he used Arcfire and laughed as Phoenix clumsily dodged the attack, "Dance little bird dance!"

Phoenix gritted her teeth and lunged forward with Levin, "Fake or not! You really need to shut up!" Owl grimaced as Phoenix got a good hit on him and jumped back, "Need help?" Phoenix groaned as Ike joined the fray, sword swinging as Phoenix braced herself for the blow.

"Denied." Phoenix opened her eyes to see Vicross standing in front of her, his siloute glitching as he maintained a shield, "Vicross? What are-,"

"Retreat, their plan is to force us into the maze." Vicross interjected, "We have no choice but to comply."

"What?! We can't just run and leave-,"

"Shulk and Vivra are already at the entrance, but Tabuu is over spawning solders, making victory impossible."

"I see…" Phoenix glanced at Owl and Ike who were still attacking the shield and ran for the exit, dodging rouge arrows and spears.

"You made it." Shulk noted as Phoenix jumped through the door, allowing Vivra and Shulk to close it just as a flaming sword lodged itself into the wood.

"Barely." Phoenix panted, Vivra nodded in agreement and summoned a map, "Come on, we can probably meet up with the others if we head this way."

"Are you sure?" Shulk questioned, Vivra scowled at him and pointed to the disjointed map, "Considering the fact that I can easily move the rooms around and create a path if something blows up, then yes. I'm sure!"

Shulk held his hands up and backed up, "Sorry, sorry. Just uneasy about this place." Phoenix nodded in agreement and studied the bleak walls, "Yes… This place does seem to be… alive in a way."

"Really? I can't sense anything but the 4 MB soilders trying to break down the door." Vivra said, pointed to the slowly breaking door. Shulk and Phoenix jumped and headed down the hallway with Vivra creating little arrows to show the way.

 _"I hope everyone else is having a better time than this."_ Phoenix thought as the bleakness slowly formed a knot in her stomach.

* * *

Machines, were not Pikachu's best friend, he could easily recount all the times he had encountered some machine like object that used him, hurt him and used mind control on him. So running through the research facility wasn't pleasant.

"Alright. Are these hallways cursed or something!?" G-Stone exclaimed as she nearly fell down a trap door, Master Core and Link pulled her to her feet while Zelda nervously wrung her hands, "Perhaps… But it shouldn't be like this, I recall the facility being less trap oritanted."

"Tabuu probably changed the design to give us a headache." Master Core guessed, "Or to lengthen the challenge since we've strayed from the rules."

"How so!?" Crazy Hand demanded, "We've been upside down twisty turvey and all over this dumb challenge thingy ever since we got here!" Zelda shrugged while Pikachu shuddered and said, "Let's keep going, this place gives me the creeps."

"Yea… Empty factories are perfect horror scenes." G-Stone said with a shudder, Pikachu tensed and started looking over his shoulder as they walked forward. The looming darkness wasn't helping his nerves either.

He was revealed when they entered an arena like room with a narrow platform, "…Is anyone getting a deja-vu feeling?" G-Stone asked as they walked to the exit, "Yea… I think I've been here before." Zelda said, she frowned as she tried to recall when while Pikachu froze, remembering exactly where they were, "Guys, this is where you fight Ridely!"

"Shoot! The Dino bird's back?!" Crazy Hand yelped, Master Core frowned and turned to correct Crazy Hand when he flew backward, slamming into a wall, "Master Core!" G-Stone yelled,

"Watch out!" she jumped and twisted around just in time to see Link jump in front of her, shield up as he blocked a Shadow Ball, "Mewtwo!?" Zelda exclaimed.

Pikachu growled and braced himself for a fight, he frowned when nothing came flying at him from the darkness but then stiffened as he heard four more thuds and a couple groans.

"Guys? You okay?" Pikachu asked, he risked a glance behind him and stifled a groan when he saw everyone knocked out, "Your about to join them." Mewtwo said, floating out of the darkness with a smug smile on his lips.

"We'll see about that!" Pikachu retorted.

 **A Puppet Mewtwo Approches!**

 **Pikachu Uses ThunderBolt!**

 **…It's not very effective.**

 **Mewtwo uses Shadow Ball!**

 **It misses!**

"Whoa! What's with the dialogue?" Pikachu questioned, studying the floating bold letters with interest, Mewtwo frowned and growled, "I don't see anything."

"Really? Weird."

 **Pikachu uses Bite!**

 **Super effective!**

 **Mewtwo counters with Aura Sphere!**

 **Pikachu takes damage! (Not a lot though…)**

 **Pikachu uses Quick Attack!**

 **It missed…**

 **Mewtwo uses Earthquake!**

"When the heck did you learn a ground type move!?" Pikachu demanded as he struggled to jump onto the floating platforms to avoid the quake, "Since now." Mewtwo replied, he chased after Pikachu and used Physic to flip him in the air and slam him into a wall.

"Darn… it." Pikachu grunted as he tried to stand up, only to find that his legs were refusing to obey, "Looks like this is the end." Mewtwo mused, Pikachu glared up at him as Mewtwo prepared a Shadow Ball.

Before he could fire it however, a shrill yell of, "Cheater!" interrupted Mewtwo's thought process as a small yellow blur latched onto his back and started head-butting him,

 **The Spark Squad joins the fray!**

"Pikachu!" Adventure snapped, "Your supposed to win! Not lose!" Sky and Pirate nodded fiercely in agreement as they attacked Mewtwo's legs, "A…aren't you guys on Tabuu's side?" Pikachu stammered as the Pichus made quick work of Mewtwo, "Yea. But it doesn't really matter since Master Hand's going Awol." Pichu said, he frowned then looked at Adventure, "What does Awol mean again?"

Adventure shrugged "I dunno, I heard Snake grumbling about it when Wolf left to destroy Falco." Then went to draw on Mewtwo's face.

"Master Hand left his group?" Pikachu questioned, Pirate nodded, "Argh! He be a yellow belied coward!" Sky frowned and smacked Pirate upside the head, "WE'RE yellow belied! Master Hand's just a coward!"

"It's a pirate expression!"

"I don't care!"

"Argh! Fear the pirate wrath!"

"Shut up!" Pichu ordered, Pirate and Sky paused then tackled Pichu, causing the three of them to roll around on the floor like little kids, Adventure watched for a bit before he looked at Pikachu, "You okay? You look a little pale?"

"I'm fine… Just shocked…" Pikachu mumbled, the thought of Master Hand leaving his group alone a bit much for him, he must have had a reason or something to leave.

Adventure frowned and gently poked Pikachu's arm, "What's wrong? It's not your fault that Master Hand can't face his past deeds."

"What?"

Adventure shrugged and tried to explain, "Well from what we saw, Master Hand used to be buddies with Tabuu before the start of some Subspace attack but Master Hand betrayed him or something." Pichu shoved Pirate off of his and added, "And he wanted Tabuu's help to reset the world to create a new master piece!"

Pirate rolled around on the floor before he stood up saying, "Artist are weird." Sky and Adventure nodded in agreement before looking back at Pikachu who was shaking his head, his mind swimming with doubt, "He wouldn't…" Pikachu muttered.

Although he had a sinking feeling that Master Hand would, after all. He didn't know anything about Master Hand other than the blatant fact that he was in control of the tournaments.

"Oww….." G-Stone groaned, "Did I run across the street without looking both ways?" Link stirred and looked at her, "What? What street? We got hit by a goat." He shuddered and quietly muttered, "An angry goat at that."

"Can I tame the goat to blow up?" Crazy Hand asked, Master Core sat up and glared at him, "Goats can't blow up."

"Spoilsport!"

"What is it with you and explosions?" Zelda questioned while rubbing the bruise on the back of her head, Crazy Hand grinned and waved his hands in the air, "Because explosions = new stuff for Master Hand to fix! Eheheh!"

Pikachu thought about this before he asked, "So if Master Hand wanted to rebuild Super Smash Bros, he would have you blow it up beforehand. Right?" Crazy Hand nodded and clapped his hands, "Yup~! He gave me the special job of blowing stuff up! I love making things go boom!"

"Wasn't that obvious?" Master Core said, "Why ask such a simple question?" Pikachu heisted while Pichu chirped, "Because Master Hand teamed up with Tabuu at the start of some Subspace event to recreate the world."

Crazy Hand's smile slipped off his face, being replaced by a cold frown of disbelief, "Where did you learn this?" Link asked, he stood up and pointed his sword at the Spark Squad, "And why are you telling us this?"

"Because we're boooorrrredd." Adventure yawned, "Tabuu's busy being a puppet master or something so we're wandering around the maze." Sky nodded in agreement and pointed to the exit, "There's a giant fluffy monster of doom ahead by the way."

"Er… Right," Zelda said, unsure what to make with that piece of information, "How about we stay on the topic at hand?" Pirate scowled but nodded in agreement, "We saw most of what happened, Tabuu appeared in front of Master Hand to bug him and revealed Master Hand's true role in the Subspace attack. After that he ditched his team for some reason."

"And just what was Master Hand's true role?" Link questioned, "He was just a pawn like everyone else in Tabuu's crazy game."

"Not according to Tabuu." Sky replied, "He said that they used to be buddies, and that Master Hand requested his help to return Brawl to its former glory. But then Master Hand felt guilty and betrayed Tabuu, forcing him to turn Master Hand into a puppet to see their plan to the end."

"That's impossible, Master Hand was a puppet the entire time," Link argued, "Using his ties to the villains to gain a bigger army." He glanced at G-Stone who was deep in thought, "Right? After all, you're the player so you saw what actually happened."

G-Stone shrugged and played with her hair, "Honestly… I'm not too sure, I had a hard time grasping what was going on besides Tabuu's a bad guy and people are turning into trophies but…"

"But what?" Master Core questioned,

"Well, Tabuu's a collector, right?"

Master Core nodded and waited for G-Stone to continue.

"So that means that he would have heard about this world to gain interest, but with the multi-verse theory and the hundreds of worlds from Pokemon, Sega, Nintendo and every other company that helped out how would Tabuu be drawn just one?"

"He would be drawn by the vast collection?" Pikachu guessed, Master Core frowned and shook his head no, "Not likely, Smash Bros is merely a thin gate-way to other fighters and their world. Only the people involved with this world and those who play the 'game' know about this universe."

"Meaning that someone for this world personally notified Tabuu.." Link realized, G-Stone nodded then looked at Crazy Hand, "Speaking of which, where were you during Tabuu's take-over?"

"Um… I was…" Crazy Hand frowned and scratched his head, "Somewheeerreee….. Somewhere dark, I just remember Master Hand telling me to explore the new world then getting locked away…" Crazy Hand trailed off as a thought struck him, "Did Master Hand… Lock me away just to work with Tabuu…?"

"Who knows?" Pikachu said, "None of us actually know Master Hand. We just know what he does."

"This is… worry some." Master Core said he hugged his glowing ball tight to his chest and mumbled, "Perhaps Master Hand is not all that he seems? Or is Tabuu merely fabricating another lie to throw us off?"

"Whatever he's planning, he's doing it now." Link said, pointing toward the exit door which was now a malevolent purple, the same color as the final door from the Great Maze.

"Well, here's goes nothing." G-Stone said, walking toward the door and pulling it open, revealing a bronze path leading toward an impressive arena.

* * *

"Is that…" Shulk followed Phoenix's gaze and frowned at the giant purple door, "According to my sources." Vicross announced startling the two weary fighters, "That is the final door from Brawl. Meaning that we have reached the final fight." He coldly looked at them and said, "However, due to your current state, you shall be rendered worthless for the final fight."

"Gee. Thanks." Phoenix grumbled, she leaned against a crumbling stone wall and took big gulps of air while Shulk reached for the handle, "What are you doing?" Vicross questioned.

"Opening the door for the final fight of course." Shulk replied, Phoenix nodded in agreement and unsheathed her sword, Vivra appeared and glanced behind them, "Well, better hurry up. Your friends are coming."

"Humans." Vicross said sounding confused and annoyed as Shulk pulled open the door and stepped inside, "Are complicated idiots."

"But they make awesome games!" Vivra argued.

"Invalid argument."

"Oh come on—" Vivra started to say when a bolt of lightning slammed beside her head startling the computer vivrus into vanishing. Owl tsked in disappointed as Marth summoned a walkies talkie, "Sir, the targets are approaching."

* * *

"Have… to… escape!" SJ panted she ducked as the ground behind her exploded, she glanced behind her and screamed in frustration as Galloem punched his way out of the ground.

She tried to pick up the pace but Duon who had so nicely spawned after she left the Ruined Zoo fired a barrage of missiles at her. She jumped over a rock platform and stumbled as she tripped over a root, "Oh come on! Movie cliché now?!" SJ yelled as she struggled to untangle her leg, "Screw you movie cliché!"

Galloem groaned in amusement as SJ glared up at it, "And of course shadow travel won't work thanks to something being annoying!" she pulled her leg free and turned to run when Galloem grabbed her and hung her upside down.

"I hate being upside down." SJ grumbled. Before Galloem could end her possibly digital existence a sharp purple blade flew into Galloem's mechanical heart, surprised the Rhino robot dropped her and looked down at its chest.

Duon stopped beside it, ignoring Galloem's surprise and prepared to fire. Before it could however a series of five lasers pierce through Duon's body, destroying it in a fiery explosion.

"Thank the shadows." SJ sighed as Master Hand grabbed her and helped her to her feet, "Don't thank me yet." Master Hand warned, glaring at the giant purple door that had spawned behind them.

"I'm still—wait, where are the Four Swords + WW Links?"

Master Hand hesitated and looked away, "Uh… Could I enlightened you once we're on the other side of the door?" SJ narrowed her eyes and adjusted her chipped glasses, "What did you do?"

"Nothing much…"

"Master Hand!"

"…Stop glaring at me!"

* * *

"Something's up…" Vio noted, Toon nodded in agreement and looked around the large room they had entered. It was luxurious with bright and cheery colors that darkened near the middle of the room, where a rainbow colored staircase was.

A row of doors surrounded them along with lush couches and a small buffet of food, Red hesitated before he offered, "Maybe Tabuu wants to reward us?"

"For what? Getting through his sicko maze?" Blue argued, he glared around and froze when he spotted something lurking in the shadows, "Hey… Do you guys…" he trailed off as Toon and Vio followed his gaze, Vio nodded in agreement and notched his bow, before he could fire one of the door opened and Crazy Hand and Master Core's group stumbled through,

"We're here!" Pichu announced. Link looked around and relaxed slightly when he saw Toon, the he flinched, "Where's Master Hand?"

Vio shrugged and bluntly said, "He disappeared after Tabuu confronted him about his past." Toon nodded in agreement, grimly added, "We don't have a clue as to where he went since we got separated in the maze."

"Does this mean that we were right?" Adventure asked sounding hopefully. Zelda pursed her lips while Crazy Hand shakily argued, "He wouldn't… He wouldn't!"

"Who wouldn't?" Toon turned to a door behind them and frowned when he saw Shulk and Phoenix, "Weren't you guys supposed to be guarding the train?" G-Stone questioned.

"The train was captured by old allies." Phoenix said, she leaned against the wall while Shulk clarified, "Tabuu sent Marth, Ike, Owl and Roy after us as well as a never ending army."

"So he's forced us all into one little room." Master Core mused. "He really must want a grand finale."

"Or a knuckle sandwich."

"SJ!" G-Stone exclaimed, giving her battered and bruised shadow a huge grin, SJ managed to return it before she glanced behind her, "What the- he was right behind me!"

"Who was?" Vio questioned.

"Master Hand!"

"What?!" Crazy Hand shoved her aside and looked around, SJ stumbled and grumbld, "Excuse me would have worked." Before she stood up and dusted herself off, "He saved me from two angry bosses from Brawl. We a brief yet unhelpful chat before I entered the main room."

"What did he say?" Mater Core asked. SJ rubbed the back of her head and repeated Master Hand's words, "Don't hold my past against me. Or something. There was waayyyyy to much background noise for me to decipher what he said."

"So… He really _did_ help Tabuu out." Red whispered, SJ blinked in surprise and looked at G-Stone. She opened her mouth to say something when a random vase fell to the ground.

"Weapons out!" Link ordered, Vio complied and was about to fire when a savvy voice said, "Relax. I surrender." And the owner stepped out of the shadows, Vio gulped and looked away in embarrassment while G-Stone gasped, "Fiona Fox!"

"You know her?" Master Core questioned. Then he too looked away from the fox, "Duh!" G-Stone exclaimed, "She's Scourge's girlfriend! Ex-Girlfriend of Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"She's barely wearing clothes." Crazy Hand whimpered, Fiona looked at him in disbelief while SJ said, "Dude, she's wearing more clothes than Zero Suit Samus's other costume."

"Don't remind me!" Crazy Hand yelped, "I can see her doing…. Bad things already!" G-Stone snickered while Link took control, pointing his sword at Fiona's throat he asked, "Where's Sonic?"

"Same place where my boyfriend is." Fiona replied, although she sounded a little worried, "Which is?"

"Not sure." Fiona admitted, "In the middle of the fight they both fell through a hole. I came here to get some answers."

"And answers you shall get!" they jumped as Tabuu appeared in a flash of light, a smirk of superior on his face as he floated down to the ground, "Here they are!" Tabuu announced, snapping his fingers and summoning a trophy of Sonic and a knocked out Scourge. Fiona quickly rushed to his side while Tabuu survived the group, "So you guys ready for the final battle?" Tabuu asked, Crazy Hand smirked and cackled, "We got ya outnumbered! Prepare for exploidness!"

"Those aren't words." Master Core muttered, Crazy Hand ignored him and summoned a bomb in his hand, Tabuu laughed and folded his arms behind him, "How cute, but this isn't the battle field."

"It's not?" Vio questioned, Tabuu shook his head no, "The battle field is up there. And the people fighting are…" he trailed off as everyone braced themselves.

"You two!"

Vio blinked in surprised as Tabuu flung two skinny gold chains which wrapped around G-Stone and SJ's legs sending them flying into the sky and into a portal.

"What." Master Core exclaimed not sounding too surprised despite the small look of shock on his face. Tabuu let loose a mad howl of laughter and doubled over while Link protested, "You can't fight them! They aren't official players of the game!"

"Oh that's the best part!" Tabuu howled, "They are! They fight behind the battle, they fought indirect this entire time! And it's totally in the game!"

"Since when?" Master Core demanded. Tabuu recollected himself and sent them a chilling smile, "Since now." Tabuu said, and with he disappeared the only trace of his present being his voice, which bounced around the room, "Don't worry, I've left you a few pawns to play with while I _destroy_ two little _pests_!"

"Pawns?" Shulk questioned, Toon opened his mouth to say something when the door opened and Master Hand stumbled through, "Is… everyone alright…?" Master Hand panted.

They looked at him in disbelief, "We're fine." Blue snapped, "No thanks to you!" Master Hand looked up in surprise while Vio said, "So are you working with Tabuu this time around as well? Or are you merely a 'pawn'?"

"What on earth are you—" Master Hand started when he realized what they meant, "I can explain!" Master Hand protested, "Yes I reached out for Tabuu and yes I put Smash Bros in danger but—,"

"You backstabber!" Toon jumped as Crazy Hand lunged at Master Hand, knocking him to the ground and wrapping his left hand around Master Hand's throat, " _I_ was the one you turned to for destroying stuff! _I_ was your partner!"

"Cr…azy!" Master Hand choked while he struggled to shove Crazy Hand off of him, "You… You!" Crazy Hand screeched unable to form a simple sentence, Master Hand gave a strangled cough and managed to shove Crazy Hand back with a card wall.

"Crazy Hand please!" Red started to say moving forward to aid Master Hand when a gust of wind slammed him into a wall, "Well, I suppose taking out _a_ Link is better than none." Vaati mused.

Blue growled while Vio and Toon went to help Red, "Backslash!" Shulk yelled, attempting to attack Vaati from behind, Vaati merely smirked as a pool of paint appeared behind him and a pillar of rainbows blocked his attack.

"What?!" Shulk landed and looked around as Drawcia stepped out of a painting, giggling softly.

"We're under attack!" Link realized, spinning around just in time to deflect an attack from 02. "Impressive." 02 muse, he raised his hand and summoned more crystals. "But can you dodge all of them?"

"I'll help!" Zelda offered already using Din's fire when Miracle appeared and absorbed the attack, "Ah-ah-ah!" Miracle taunted, "That wouldn't be very fair now would it?"

"Who cares for fair?" Zero said walking out of the darkness with Dark Matter hovering behind him, "All that matters is that your protector has failed."

Master Core frowned and was about to argue when a series of explosions cut him off, everyone stumbled and looked back at Crazy Hand who was stumbling backwards, seemly unable to keep his balance. Master Hand was leaning against a wall, panting as he rubbed his red marked throat.

"Fine." Crazy Hand declared, an eerie calm in his eyes, "You threw me away… So I'll do the same to you." Master Hand looked up and croaked, "I… Didn't… throw you awat!"

"Lies." Crazy Hand said, "Lies! Lies! Lies! And more lies!" he raised his hand and screamed, "I'll rebuild that world you so nicely betrayed me for! Which you betrayed everyone for! I'll rebuild it and destroy it over and over again!" Vio winched as Crazy Hand summoned more bombs and hurled them across the room.

Nearly all of them missing and slamming into the floor before exploding. "Perhaps we should take this fight elsewhere." Vaati mused, Vio glared at him and opened his mouth to object when a tornado engulfed him and in his friends.

The last thing he saw was Master Core being engulfed by a swarm of black dots and turning into a black hazy dog like creature.

* * *

"Impressed?" Tabuu asked, a smug smile on his face while SJ and G-Stone shifted into awkward yet determined fighting stances. "Of what?" G-Stone retorted, "Your crazy puppet show, or the remake final stage from your original final fight?"

"Of both of course!" Tabuu swept his hands around the room which was a floating abyss of electronic lines and a single platform that was a darker recolor of the Battle field, he snapped his fingers and present an image of the fight below them.

"Wonderful isn't it?" Tabuu mused, "All the seeds of doubt I planted all sprouting at the same time!"

"Ya sure about that?" SJ countered, "Since the only ones whose flipped is Crazy Hand." G-Stone nodded in agreement an angry frown on her face, "Besides! Just because you have everyone pitted against someone doesn't mean that we've lost yet!"

"Really?" Tabuu questioned, watching as Master Core fruitlessly tried to stop Crazy Hand and Master Hand from fighting, "Even if your little _fighters_ win against their own fight, Master Hand and Crazy Hand will end up turning them into trophies during the fight."

"And we'll beat you to a pulp!" SJ retorted, she opened her right hand and summoned a twinkly star designed fan while G-Stone opened her left hand and summoned an impressive holy sword, "This is it!" G-Stone announced, dropping her Messenger bag on the floor.

"The final battle!" SJ said, Tabuu laughed and unfolded his twisted wings and summoned his gold chain, "My, my. Someone's been playing to many video games!" Tabuu sneered.

* * *

 **This is folks! The final battle! Will Tabuu best the outsiders or shall Master Core knock some sense into Master Hand and Crazy Hand to take control of the situation? Also, props to anyone who remembered the: Running Across the Street without looking both ways reference :3**


	15. Chapter 15, The Final Battle

**The final battle!... Of annoyance :3 I own nothing but the pun masters (G-Stone and SJ)**

* * *

"Let's start things off with an easy pattern, shall we?" Tabuu mused, he flicked his chain and hurled it at G-Stone who jumped to the side, "Aw man. I thought he was going to pull a Sans." G-Stone grumbled.

"Sans… Undertale!" SJ realized, G-Stone frowned and tried to take deep calming breaths as Tabuu prepared to attack again, "Okay, how is Undertale going to help us? We went through the no beating people up route remember?"

"Yea! But we can dodge like a boss in Undertale!"

"…Let's save that for Plan U."

"And what's the plan now?"

"Plan DQ! Dragon Quest!" G-Stone lunged forward and swung her sword while SJ followed close behind her, "Aw! How cute! You're using your sword skills from Wii Sports Resort!" Tabuu cooed, he flew backward and formed a shark like blade in his hand.

"Oh geez!" G-Stone yelped as she prepared to block the incoming attack, "Into the shadows we go!" SJ yelled grabbing her friend and pulling her under a layer of darkness. They winched as Tabuu flew over their heads, stopped then formed a laser in his hand.

 _"We should move."_ SJ declared, G-Stone sent her a look and dove out of the shadows, clumsily rolling away from the attack. "Alright, let's try Crack!" G-Stone said, she punched the air and grinned as a block of ice encased Tabuu, stopping him momentarily as she landed a 55 damage on him.

Tabuu growled softly and started spinning his chain in a circle, "Get ready to move." SJ advised, G-Stone nodded. Tabuu sent the chain toward SJ who dove to the side only to see the blade make a sharp turn and grab her leg, "Wha!?" SJ yelped as Tabuu pulled her in and blasted her with a laser.

"Alright. New plan." SJ coughed as Tabuu spun her in a circle and sent her nearly flying off the stage. "Well. I didn't want to do this but…" G-Stone grinned and dropped her sword, causing it to vanish, Tabuu raised an eyebrow and groaned as G-Stone yelled, "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!"

"Oh. MY. GOD!" Tabuu roared,

"Don't care!" G-Stone snickered, "Whatever's coming is totally worth it!"

"Including an army of lasers!?"

"…Still worth it!" G-Stone retorted, SJ laughed and shook her head, "You should have said, THIS IS SPARTA!"

"Better yet! THIS! IS! K.K!"

"Are you done!?" Tabuu demanded, SJ and G-Stone stuck their tongues out and yelped as Tabuu fired an army of lasers at them.

"Never!" G-Stone crowed, SJ nodded in agreement and dove to the side, "So we annoy him to death and _then_ use plan U?"

"More or less." G-Stone panted, "Or, we wait until plan B shows up." SJ frowned and ducked under a stray laserbeam, "Plan B?"

"Back up." G-Stone clearifed before she spun around and yelled, "Man Tabuu you are such a baka!" Tabuu froze and frowned, "A what now?"

"An idiot, dummy, moron." SJ explained then she leaned forward and yelled, "Baka! Baka!" trying her best to stress the word out like the anime characters did.

"Oh shut up!" Tabuu roared.

"Benny hill theme!" G-Stone yelped. SJ laughed and said, "You're going to kill me before he does!"

"It'll still be worth it!"

"No it won't!" Tabuu yelled.

* * *

"Wait! Where are we going?!" Pit demanded as they walked down a grand hallway, "Why are we here? Better yet, where is here?!" Dark Pit ignored him and pushed open a grand golden door, "Just shut up and keep moving."

"What? Why and wait— was that door labeled trophy room?" Pit yanked back and tried to read the oddly written sign, his eyes widen as he realized where he was, startled he yanked his hand out of Dark Pit's and looked at him in horror, "Why are we in Ta's palace?!"

"Tabuu to be correct." Pit jumped as Wolf exited the room Dark Pit was just entering, Pit looked at him in horror then at Dark Pit who was slowly forming a fist, "Pit, what's the last thing you remember?" Dark Pit asked, Pit thought for a bit then shivered as he remembered the unseen force that grabbed him and sealed him in a stony prison.

Dark Pit sighed and gave Pit a tired look, "Well, judging by your scared face I'd say you remember getting kidnapped." Pit frowned then realized something, "Wait, if I was kidnapped, then what did you do to free me?"

Wolf snickered and wrapped an arm around Pit, ignoring the angle's discomfort, "Simple pretty boy, Tabuu enlisted him to temporally join our cause."

Dark Pit nodded, a dark glint in his eyes. "What did he have you do?" Pit asked, Dark Pit looked away with a small frown, "Nothing too bad, I attacked Marth in order for him to temporally cross into our world and reanimated a couple trophies."

"Which are currently beating the tar out of your friends." Wolf sneered. Pit growled and grabbed his arm, "Well that's going to change!" with a grunt Pit flipped Wolf over his shoulder and sprinted toward the door labeled trophy room, "Pit!" Dark Pit yelled, Pit ignored him and opened the door.

"Get back here!" Pit winched as Dark Pit slammed into him, pinning him to the ground, "Let me go!" Pit grunted, "We have to help our friends!"

" _Your_ friends." Dark Pit corrected, "I don't have any besides Sheik."

"Who's a trophy!" Pit argued, "Actually…." They froze and looked up, Pit gasped as a tan woman studied them with a small frown, "I'm right here."

"S-shiek?" Pit stammered, Dark Pit managed a shaky whistle and pointed to her outfit, "Nice clothes." Sheik blushed before she shook her head, "Thanks, but I can't allow you to go any further."

"What? Why?! Tabuu plans on taking over our world!"

"I know that." Sheik said, "But… I have a debt to repay to a friend. We received orders to guard this place in case you attacked us."

"We?" Pit questioned while Dark Pit stiffened, "I'm guessing your boyfriend's your partner?"

"Why does everyone keep resorting to calling me her boyfriend?" Pit looked behind Sheik and saw Mask, only much older. "You're alive?"

"Yes, and I have a deal to propose." Mask said, he unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Pit, "Defeat us, and we'll allow you to free your friends. But if we win, then you must quietly wait in the waiting room until the battle is over."

"You're on!" Pit said, preparing his bow for battle. Dark Pit glared at him and grabbed his arm, "Are you crazy!? Did I seriously waste my time backstabbing people just so you could get beat back to a statue?!"

"Well after hearing that, yes!" Pit snapped, "I'm not going to stand around while my friends fight the final battle!"

Dark Pit gritted his teeth and tried to stop him but Pit merely lunged forward and attacked Sheik who did her best to block Pit's rapid swinging. Unfortunately, he left himself wide open to Mask's attack. Pit saw the blade coming at him and tried to jump out of the way, but he knew it would be a fruitless effort.

"You idiot!" Pit blinked in surprise as Dark Pit lunged forward and slammed into Link with his Hammer sending him flying, Dark Pit glared at Pit and gestured toward Sheik, "Well?! If you're going to save the day you might as well finish her off!"

Pit smiled and blocked an attack, "So what happened to you wasting your time?" Pit teased, Dark Pit rolled his eyes and notched an arrow, "Oh shut up."

* * *

The battle field was in chaos, explosions seemed to be happening faster than Shulk could process it, let only move. He couldn't even see past the black haze of smoke that had complete covered his line of vision.

"Shulk!" it sounded like a yell but it was quickly muffled by a roar of anger and another explosion, Shulk coughed and looked up, Phoenix was kneeling beside him, trying to stand up but another explosion knocked her back down to the ground.

"We need to get to Tabuu." Phoenix mouthed, realizing that talking wasn't going to work in this situation, Shulk nodded and grabbed the Monado, he jumped when he felt someone grab his shoulder but quickly relaxed when he saw it was just Link and Zelda who nodded in agreement.

Silently offering to help. Shulk returned the nod and slowly got up, winching as the entire room seemed to shake from the monstrous fight between Master Hand, Master Core and Crazy Hand.

"Now!" Shulk ordered, sprinting toward the stairway while avoiding explosion. He didn't look back, just forward hoping that Phoenix, Zelda and Link were close behind him as he scrambled up the cracking stairway. Shulk couldn't help but wonder if Tabuu actually _did_ build the stairway with just glass.

He shoved open an oak door and held it open for his teammates before he slammed it shut. "We made it." Zelda panted, she leaned against the door and tried to catch her breath, Phoenix did the same while Link looked around.

"Something's wrong." Link growled, unsheathing his sword, Shulk looked around and prepared the Monado noticing just how much the room seemed to be moving, yet at the same time not moving. It reminded Shulk of a video projection where you could set up a screen just by using lights and a couple see through strips of film. Only there wasn't a light shining down from a high up perch, just swirling colors and a moving hexagon underneath them.

"Where are we?" Zelda asked.

"The Dark Star." Shulk looked up and glared at Zero who was floating down from the ceiling, Miracle and 02 were behind him looking like stiff statues.

"First and final base of operations for Dark Matter." Zero finished, he landed and practically fell over, 02 and Miracle quickly caught him and held him at an upright position.

"Where's Tabuu?" Link demanded, Zero studied him before a small chuckle escaped him, 02 raised an eyebrow while Miracle frowned, "Huh, didn't know you had a sense of humor before, Master."

Zero shook his head, "Neither did I," he looked at Link and shook his head again, "Although, did you really believe that Tabuu would allow you and co. to waltz up to his final fight and interrupt it?"

"I was hoping that." Phoenix muttered. Zero shook his head again while Shulk boldly said, "No problem! We just have to defeat you in order to help our friends!"

"You say it like it's an easy feat." 02 noted, "Hopefully, your defeat shall teach you better."

"We won't lose!" Phoenix said, pushing herself up from the door and preparing Ember, Miracle laughed and summoned a barricade of ice, "You aren't very good at accepting the truth!"

Shulk gritted his teeth and lunged forward yelling a battle cry of, "Let's go!"

* * *

"Welcome." Vaati said, "To The Palace of Winds." Toon looked up from the stone floor and scowled at him, it was bad enough that he had been dumped on the floor like a piece of garbage but it was even worse when he glanced behind him to see Blue, Red and Vio tropfied, they were like the Ice Climber Trophy, only they were facing different directions and looked ready to fight.

"Nice place I guess." Toon grumbled, he stood up and pointed the Master Sword at Vaati, "Too bad you won't have long to admire it though." Toon challenged, Vaati smirked and unsheathed his sword sending a ripple through the still air "Really? I was about to say the same thing."

* * *

Samus winched as another explosion rumbled throughout the palace before an unease quiet followed, after messing with Sheik and happily getting a confession that Sheik did like Mask she had started to explore a bit.

Of course as she wandered around the lavish halls and grand doors she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt at the thought of her friends fighting while she explored. "Well, I can head back." Samus reminded herself, she frowned slightly and looked around, "As soon as I figure out where the heck I am…"

She spotted an odd painting with mismatched colors and a single glowing yellow eye staring back at her. Samus wasn't one for art, she found it boring and a waste of time that could be better spent on training.

"Never knew Tabuu had an art sense." Samus grumbled as she walked past it but quickly stopped when she heard something rattle behind her, she froze and glanced behind her. No one was there of course, but the only object in the room that could produce that sound seemed to be the painting.

"Okaaayyy." Samus said slowly backtracking to look at the painting once more, "Are you alive painting?" it didn't reply but Samus couldn't help but feel like it was watching her like a science experiment, "I'm going to leave, and you're going to hang on the wall and look pretty. Okay?"

No reply,

"Good! Glad we had this talk." She resumed walking but jumped when there was a loud clunk behind her, "Oh now what!?" Samus demanded as she spun around to see the painting on the floor, Samus growled in frustration and went to pick it up when the painting started to bleed paint that slowly formed into Drawcia.

"Ohh verrryy funny." Samus grumbled as Drawcia giggled and pointed at her, Samus turned to leave when she bumped into a wall, "What the-!?" Samus glared behind her at Drawcia who seemed pleased with her handiwork.

"Alright, you got me." Samus admitted, "Now can I please leave?" Drawcia shook her head no and used her paintbrush to point at Samus, "You want me to paint?"

Drawcia angrily shook her head no and smacked her with the brush, "Ow! What was that for?!" Samus yelped, wiping the rainbow paint off her face, "Are you just trying to start a fight?!"

Drawcia happily nodded and gestured to the walls, which were slowly melting away and revealing a painted world with dark hues of purple and blues.

"Well, in that case. Bring it!" Samus yelled firing a missile at Drawcia who laughed and flew high in the air to avoid it.

* * *

Chaos, that was all Master Core sensed, he could sense high intense battles going on around him, each fighter desperately trying their best to succeed and defend the destroyed shreds of Smash while their opponents gleefully torn their hopes and dreams away from them.

And he was stuck dealing with two immature children instead of helping their cause! It was infuriating, annoying, frustrating and made Master Core feel sick. There were plenty of things he could do, leave Master and Crazy Hand to kill each other while provide aid to the other fighters, tear the two Hands apart and knock some sense into them (Which wasn't really working at the moment…)

Or confront Tabuu on his own. He was a powerful fighter after all, but a nagging feeling stopped him from carrying out that plan. He sighed and looked around the destroyed room, Master Hand and Crazy Hand were arguing while hurling explosives at each other only now they seemed intent on beating each other to a bloody pulp. How had this turned into a senseless game about fighting so quickly?

Oh wait, that was their entire purpose of being here, fighting to prove who was better. What a lame concept.

Master Core shook his head and made his decision **"ENOUGH!"** the roar knocked Master Hand and Crazy Hand out of the sky in shock allowing Master Core to pouch on them and pin them to ground.

"Let me go!" Crazy Hand screamed, angrily struggling around the black particles, "Let me go!" Master Hand fought as well but he didn't say anything, he merely glared at Master Core who growled angrily at them.

 **"I'll happily let you idiots go once you actually use your brains for once!"**

"Hey! I use me brain!" Crazy Hand yelled, "My, I use _my_ brain." Master Hand corrected earning an irate scream from Crazy Hand.

 **"Will you shut up?! While you morons roll around like little kids the fate of the world you so nicely created is on a teenage girl!"**

"And? I'd rather see the stupid world burn." Crazy Hand said, earning a stern glare from Master Hand, "You helped build it too."

"I did?" Crazy Hand said he looked away and hotly retorted, "I forgot, since I was too busy being locked in a closet."

"I didn't lock you in a closet in Smash 4!"

"Really? Hard to tell since you don't let me help with anything around here!" Crazy Hand snapped. Master Hand frowned and tried to retort something but Master Core increased the pressure, forcing them to shut talking and focus on breathing.

 **"Enough! Master Hand, apologize to Crazy Hand!"**

"I don't want an apology!" Crazy Hand hissed, "I'd rather hang out with Tabuu then this snake!"

Master Core ignored him and looked at Master Hand who winched and looked at Crazy Hand, "Err, Crazy Hand."

"I'm a ghost." Crazy Hand declared, "You can't talk to ghosts."

"Crazy Hand. I know you're there, and I'm sorry."

"WhoOOoooOO I'mmm aaaa ghooOoooSt."

"I should have asked for your help in Brawl instead of reaching out for someone else.

"I'm STilll DeaaAaad. WhhhoOOoooOOO."

"And I didn't have any right to lock you in a closet."

"BooOooOooO I like to Haaaunt Boonanans."

Master Hand groaned and looked up at Master Core, "Do I seriously need to apologize to him? He's acting like a child!"

 **"You were both acting like children a minute ago."** Master Core reminded him, he looked at Crazy Hand who was happily making ghost noise, **"Now Crazy Hand, why don't you explain why you felt so betrayed?"**

Crazy Hand glared up at him and started to make more ghost noise when Master Core growled, **"I revived you, therefore you aren't a ghost."**

"Dawww." Crazy Hand grumbled, "I like being a ghost." He glared at Master Core and snapped, "You're a jerk because you're a jerk!"

 **"That doesn't explain why you felt betrayed."**

Crazy Hand huffed and squirmed, "Finneeee. I felt betrayed because he's always going 'Crazy Hand you can't blow that up' or 'We need that for the stage to work!' or, or! 'Just because you showed up in Melee doesn't mean that you can blow up everything just because!' and then the one time he _needs_ something to be destroyed who does he turn to?! A complete nobody! And look where that got us Mr. I'm king of the world!"

Master Hand frowned and grumbled, "I'm not Mr. King of the world."

"Yes he is!"

"Yes _you_ are—," Master Hand tried to say when Crazy Hand yelled, "And stopped correcting me! I was born crazy therefore I shall act crazy!"

"Crazy doesn't excuse bad grammar."

"Yes it does!"

 **"This is going nowhere…."** Master Core grumbled, he turned back into his human form and handcuffed Master Hand and Crazy Hand together, "Where did you get these?!" Master Hand demanded as Crazy Hand ohhed and awed over the shiny black hand cuffs.

"I made them, and I'm not freeing you until you both make up with each other." Master Core said. Crazy Hand looked up to complain but quickly stopped himself when he noticed the murderous glint in his eyes.

"And where you going then?" Master Hand asked, "Since you're clearly not staying to watch over us."

"I'm off to do something productive." Master Core said, "And by productive, I mean by cheating and using the smash ball to blow everyone up."

"Awww! I wanna help!" Crazy Hand whined.

"You can help once you **Stop fighting!"** Master Core snarled, Master and Crazy Hand winced as Master Core disappeared in a tornado of black partials.

"Er… right…" Master Hand said he glanced at Crazy Hand who was purposely studying their handcuffs.

"If it makes you feel better, you're better at destroying things than Tabuu."

"WhhOoooOoooO. DeeeeAaaadd PeeooooPppplllle DoooOOOoon't Taaalllkkk toooOooO the Liiiivvviiinng."

"…That sounded nothing like a ghost."

"Whaat? Diiiddd YOooOOooOoou saaaayyy sOoooOoomeeetthhhIIIiiing?"

"Will you stop acting like a child?! I'm trying to have a decent conversation with you!"

"Fine." Crazy Hand huffed, looking up from his handcuff for a couple moments, "Thank you. I'm sorry for hurting you, I wasn't thinking at the moment." He glanced at Crazy Hand who seemed to be looking through him.

"Well…? A retort would be nice…"

"Grown ups don't speak to naughty children."

"What?! _I'm_ the child? Look who's talking!"

* * *

"You can't touch me~ You can't touch me~!" Miracle sang as she floated around Shulk, purposely having her stone shield up so no one could harm her.

"Miracle, what did I tell you about being happy." Zero asked, Miracle cringed and pouted as Shulk tried to stab her with the Monado, "Happiness is bad…" Miracle recited.

"Yes, now go stand in the corner until the battle is over." Zero ordered. Miracle did as told, sulking the entire way to the corner while 02 shook his head and avoided a team attack from Zelda and Link. "Honestly, I don't see the point of this, it will take a miracle for you four to win."

"We don't need a miracle!" Phoenix yelled using Arcfire on 02, "Ow." 02 muttered as he floated back to put of the remaining flames.

"Miracle or not, you're all going to die." Zero reminded them, "It would kill you, to sound like a normal person." Zelda said.

"Why yes. Thank you for understanding that." Zelda face palmed while Link tried to look on the positive, "At least he has a sense of humor."

02 scowled and was about to argue when someone angrily opened the door, Shulk glanced behind him and blinked in surprise as Master Core entered, "Master Core? What are you doing here?" Shulk asked while Phoenix asked, "Does this mean that Master and Crazy Hand have stopped fighting?"

"Yes and no, I'm here to end this." Master Core said, Zero frowned and argued, "But… the match has already started."

"Yea!" Miracle chirped, "You would have to break the rules if you wanna stop us!" 02 nodded in agreement and tried to add onto Miracle's statement when Master Core yelled, "Screw the rules! I have a Smash Ball!"

"A what know?" Miracle questioned while the Smash Ball appeared out of nowhere and promptly exploded in front of the Dark Matter trio.

"Thank…you?" Zelda said, examining the destruction the Smash Ball had left behind, "He just knocked them out…" Phoenix whispered, in shock more than fear, Shulk nodded in agreement while Link put his sword away.

"Well, that's that." Link said, Master Core nodded and turned to Link and Shulk, "Yes, now you two can go aid Pit and Dark Pit turn everyone back too normal."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Shulk asked, "He betrayed us once, what's going to stop him from betraying us again?" Master Core growled, "Obey or die." Quickly silencing any objections and turned to the girls, "You're helping Samus then Toon while I happily destroy Tabuu."

"Um… Maybe you should wait for—" Phoenix started to say when Master Core snapped, "If you finish that sentence with, 'wait for Master and Crazy Hand' then I will happily turn you into a trophy myself, since I am not sticking around the two feuding children while everything blows up! Good day!"

Phoenix winced as an angry storm of black partials swarmed around Master Core and abruptly vanished.

"Well then…" Zelda managed, Phoenix nodded in agreement while Shulk asked, "Um… Is he always like this when angered? With blood red smashy like eyes and an unreasonable temper?"

"I'm not sure…" Link admitted, "He's pretty much a newcomer…"

"I think we should just do as he says before we end up like them." Phoenix said gesturing to the Dark Matter trio who were knocked out on the ground.

"Agreed." Zelda said.

* * *

"Why couldn't that have been easier." Pit asked, breathing hard as he and Dark Pit sprinted toward the trophy room, "Shut… up." Dark Pit ordered, although he was breathing just as hard, not from running, but from their lucky win. Dark Pit managed to get a lucky hit on Mask and sent him flying into Sheik knocking them both out.

"Here we are…" Dark Pit announced, gesturing to a rusty metal door, Pit nodded and opened it, "Wow… Tabuu loves collecting." Pit noted stepping inside an impressive trophy room, "It's not that cool." Dark Pit grumbled.

"Yea… It is a little creepy." Pit said feeling a shiver run down his spine as he studied a Roy trophy, "Man, never knew Roy had a death glare when he's a trophy."

"Roy's not a—" Dark Pit started to say when he saw something, "Move!" Pit jumped and hit the floor, winching as he heard a whoosh behind him, "The trophies can fight?!" Pit yelped as Dark Pit forced Roy into the glass wall, "Yes and no." Dark Pit grunted, "Help me out here!"

"R-right!" Pit fired an arrow and watched as Roy broke through the glass and fell into the darkness, "So… why was he a trophy yet not a trophy?" Pit asked.

"Because Tabuu had Vaati and I dump some weird bugs on all the Fire Emblem people before the huge fight started." Dark Pit explained, "I guess once they finished their job Tabuu sent them back here."

"Great, so we have to keep our eyes peeled while we try to turn everyone back too normal." Pit grumbled.

"Pretty much. Now come on, we don't have a lot of time."

"Right." Pit tapped Mario's trophy and frowned when nothing happened, "Weird…" he tried Falco's and jumped when a bright light engulfed him and sent Falco tumbling forward, right onto Pit.

"Explosions!" Falco yelled while Dark Pit snapped "Birdbrain!" Dark as he yanked Falco off of Pit, "Okay, so touching Falco turns him back too normal but why doesn't it work for Mario?" Pit questioned.

Dark Pit thought for a bit before he asked Falco, "Who attacked you?"

"Wolf." Falco said sounding dejected, "I thought we were friends…"

"You have a theory Pitto?" Dark Pit scowled and tapped the Villagers trophy and watched as all eight villagers fell to the ground muttering something under their breaths, "I'm wondering if the only people we can free are the people we were defeated by official Smash characters." Dark Pit explained, Falco tapped Wario's trophy and frowned when nothing happened, "Apparently not since Wario was attacked by Melee and Brawl characters, and it's not working."

"Weird." Pit muttered while Treeleaf sat up and asked, "Where are we?"

"Tabuu's trophy lair." Dark Pit explained.

"Whose Tabuu?" Tye-Dye asked while Chibi asked, "Who owns a trophy room made out of glass?" Villager thought for a while before suggesting, "Blathers? After all he does seem to live in the museum."

"True, true." Rugby said. 9-Ball looked at 4-ball who was scratching his head, "This place is weird…"

"Gee, thanks for that enlightening comment." Dark Pit said sarcasm dripping from his voice of course the Villagers didn't notice and instead beamed a proud smile at 4-Ball who chirped, "You're welcome." Dark Pit growled and opened his mouth to say something when someone yelled, "Look out!" and an arrow flew over their heads. Dark Pit and Pit spun around to see Marth stagger back from the arrow lodged in his shoulder.

"Link?" Pit questioned as Dark Pit sent him flying outside the case, "What are you and Shulk doing here?"

"Master Core sent us to help." Shulk explained, he gave Dark Pit an uneasy glare as Link touched Bowser's paint covered trophy he winched as the paint jumped to life and briefly swatted his hand way with a melted claw.

"For some reasons, not all the trophies are turning back too normal." Dark Pit said, answering Link's silent question. "Well that's great." Link grumbled while Falco poked Fox's trophy, "It's really weird." Falco mused.

"Also, all the Fire Emblem characters here are evil, so feel free to beat them up." Pit advised. Shulk frowned and warily pointed his sword at Owl's statue, "Right then, let's free as many people as we can and head back to the main room."

* * *

"Watch out!" Samus warned hitting the floor as a giant ball of rainbow paint angrily bounced around the room, "She really doesn't want to go down." Phoenix tiredly noted, Drawcia let loose an animal like growl of agreement before she painted a cyclops like orange monster which promptly charged at them.

"Din's Fire!" Zelda yelled destroying the monster in a fiery explosion. "She's like Ridely! Only colorful." Samus joked, Drawcia growled and painted a bomb, hurling it at Phoenix who tried to advance.

Phoenix yelped as the bomb exploded and covered in black paint, "Huh, so that's what you would look like with black hair." Zelda noted, Phoenix managed a weak laugh as Drawcia furiously started to paint something.

"If we can get close to her and steal her paint brush away from her." Phoenix theorized, "Then we might have a better chance at beating her." Samus nodded and ducked as the angry paint ball flew toward her, "Yea, but how are we supposed to get close to her? She keeps painting little minions."

"Guess we have to plow through them and hope." Zelda said, Samus and Phoenix nodded in agreement and sprinted toward Drawcia who glanced up from her painting just in time to see missiles and an Arc fire flying toward her.

She screamed and covered her face as the painting behind her sprung to life and took the attacks, earning a frustrated, "Oh come on!" from Samus as the smoke cleared and revealed Lucario, wearing a light purple chest plate of armor.

"Well, that would explain why Lucario was nowhere to be seen throughout the maze." Zelda muttered as she dodged an unusually large Aura Sphere.

"Alright, this is getting annoying." Samus grumbled, "Time for plan B!" Phoenix ducked and looked at Samus, "Err... What exactly is plan B?"

"This is!" Samus yelled as she grabbed Phoenix by the arm and threw her toward Drawcia catching the Sorcerous off guard as Phoenix slammed into her and caused them to tumble into the wall, "Zelda! Take down Drawcia while I handle Lucario!" Samus ordered tackling Lucario and placing a gun to his head.

"I suppose you telling us the plan beforehand would have been too much trouble?" Zelda yelled teleporting over to Drawcia and attacking her with a summoned Phantom Knight.

"Yup!" Samus chirped earning frustrated half groans from Phoenix and Zelda as they subdued Drawcia.

* * *

"Alright, so let me get this straight." Drawcia glared up at Shulk who recounted her messy description of how to free their friends, "In order for us to successfully free everyone, we would need you to paint over them?"

Drawcia nodded and glanced at Painty who was slowly gravitating toward Kirby's trophy, it froze once it felt Drawcia's gaze on it and straightened, resuming its stiff position besides Drawcia.

"It makes some sense." Toon said, "After all, she can bring her art pieces to life, so turning the corrupted statues back to the normal shouldn't be too hard."

 _"It's not, I just don't like you."_ Drawcia thought, she glanced at Lucario who was a trophy and felt the urge to scowl, after she had completed her mission. Tabuu had allowed her to freely roam the palace with Lucario having an interesting conversation with the Aura Pokémon. Of course that had nicely been ruined by those dumb invaders.

"Hey. Are you done shooting evil looks at everyone?" Link asked, Drawcia angrily shook her head no and glared at him, "Are you sure she's going to cooperate?" Falco asked, "She looks ready to murder us."

"Well, if she doesn't want to end up like Tabuu, she'd better." Dark Pit growled, Drawica managed to make an indigent sound before Dark Pit shut her down with another swift glare.

"Well, can we come to a compromise?" Phoenix asked, trying for a friendlier approach, Drawcia thought for a bit before her eye lit up and she vigorously nodded.

"Great! What do you want in return for freeing our friends?"

Drawcia nudged Painty who spun around to paint a picture of Phoenix flying into Dark Pit. "…You want someone to hurl Phoenix into Dark Pit?" Samus questioned, causing Phoenix to turn a faint green while Dark Pit yelled, "No one is throwing anyone at me!"

Drawcia huffed and turned her head, showing that was the only opinion for her cooperation, Shulk chuckled and leaned on his Monado Blade, "Well judging by that glint in Samus's eyes, I'm going to guess that you're going to end up on the floor Pitto."

Pitto? What a weirdo name.

"That's not my name!" Dark Pit roared raising his bow to shoot Shulk with an arrow, but before he could do anything Samus yelled, "Deal!" picked up Phoenix and hurled her into Dark Pit, sending them sliding on the smooth marble floor.

Drawcia let loose a distorted scream of laughter and happily fell on her back, kicking her legs up in the air to show that she was hysterical with laughter.

"I…Hate all of you." Dark Pit groaned, Phoenix feebly nodded and muttered, "Same."

"Well, at least someone enjoyed it." Pit offered, trying for a joking smile which earned a loud, "Shut it!" from Dark Pit. Link sighed and pulled Drawcia to her feet who was struggling to breath, "Alright, your turn." Link ordered, untying Drawcia from the hastily made rope.

Drawcia nodded and picked up Painty, happily painting Pitto on every statue and freeing them with ease.

"Alright, once everyone's freed we can help Master Core!" Pit said, Shulk, Zelda and Link shared unsure glances, "Maybe, that is if Master Core doesn't summon another Smash ball and hurl it into Tabuu's face…" Shulk recalled.

"Yea…. I think he got this on his own…" Zelda realized.

"Still!" Pit argued, "The more people we have the better we'll do!... Right?"

"True." Samus said.

* * *

It was official, today was Tabuu's first and hopefully last terrible, bad day. It had started out fine, like other days plans to destroy Smash Bros was progressing smoothly, he had broken the sliver thread of trust Master Hand had with his fighters and he split up the remaining fighters in order to buy himself enough time to merciless pound that annoying girl into dust.

Of course, that was when his day went from good too worse as she and her 'shadow' proved to a nusciuise to destroy, his happy cheerful facade had slipped away and was replaced by his serious, cold and headstrong demeanor, his true self to be excate. But that wasn't the worst part! Nope!

Once he was sure they were standing on their last leg and prepared to blast them with a final attack G-Stone had whipped out her computer and changed the game, a game where they did nothing but dodge his attacks and have pleasant conversation with him as he tried to attack them.

"Why. Won't. You. Hold. Still?!" Tabuu demanded as they bobbed and weaved around a small flock of butterfly, SJ rolled her eyes as G-Stone yelled, "Because we have Determination!"

"You mean the power to be annoying?!" Tabuu snapped summoning an even larger swarm of butterflies toward them, "Since that's all you seem to be doing!"

"Actually, we've been trying to spare you." SJ countered, G-Stone nodded as Tabuu face palmed, "Oh, well excuse me for not being Undertale trash. I'm soooo sorry."

G-Stone frowned and dodged the butterflies while SJ shrugged, "Eh, if being trash means we get to stall you for a little longer then, it's worth it."

"Oh! Let's pull a Sans!" G-Stone suggested, SJ glanced at Tabuu who was livid then grinned, "Sure!"

"Sans? Who or what is a Sans?!" Tabuu demanded as he waited for their next annoying question, the girls ignored him and sat down on the ground, Tabuu blinked in surprise and tilted his head, "What… what are you doing?"

"Nothing." G-Stone chirped, "Absolutely nothing."

"…Why?"

"So you can't attack us." SJ explained, "Undertale works like an RPG, so if we don't select a command, you have to wait for your turn."

"So… I'm stuck." Tabuu clarified, more for his own benefit then for the girls, "Doing nothing…" they nodded and started to play rock paper sciossicer.

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!" Tabuu roared once the problem sunk in, G-Stone shook her head no while Tabuu spluttered, "I did not, waste all my time to destroy Smash Bros just to be stuck frozen in turn land!"

"Then why did you?" G-Stone questioned, Tabuu flinched slightly as he realized it was his turn, "I mean, you could have easily rebuilt your own little paradise and collected an even stronger army of forgotten characters yet you decided to dive head first without knowing anything."

Tabuu opened his mouth to angrily shout that it wasn't their concern when SJ guessed, "Was it because you wanted to become a someone again? With everyone else?"

"I'm not answering that." Tabuu growled.

"Are you suurrrreee?" G-Stone asked,

"Quite sure since I can now do this!" Tabuu snapped summoning his shark blade, G-Stone and SJ yelped and dove to the side as Tabuu gleefully shattered their black and white shield, "HA! Looks like it's back to Smash rules!" Tabuu gloated.

"Goodie." G-Stone grumbled, summoning her sword once more while SJ did the same. They launched into basic Mii-Sword fighter combat while Tabuu regained his control, they couldn't beat him. They would need an army in order to defeat him.

And now they couldn't even use that dumb Undertale game to—, "What's that noise…?" Tabuu questioned.

"Hopes and Dreams!" G-Stone chirped performing Link's up-b in hopes of getting a couple hits in, "It's some awesome boss music from Undertale!"

Tabuu blanched in horror at that cheerful, upbeat music that was playing from G-Stone's MP3 and angrily yelled, "Well have fun with that! You won't even be able to defeat me!"

"Yea, that's why we're stalling." SJ chirped,

"What." Tabuu floated off the stage and turned to use his instate freeze attack, "Not that!" G-Stone whined as she clumsily rolled around, trying to avoid the three wave blast.

"Doesn't matter!" SJ said, "I think Master Core and the others rounded up the other trophies!"

Tabuu grimaced and silently checked his computer screens which showed all 64 fighters plus Drawcia who seemed to be laughing at Dark Pit for some reason running toward the main room, where Master Hand and Crazy Hand were.

Tabuu felt a wave of Deja-vu as he closed the computer screen and glanced back at the now confident SJ and G-Stone, "So. It appears you do have an army on your side." Tabuu said coldly, G-Stone nodded and grinned, "Yup! Ready to surrender? Although I have no problem beating you to a pulp."

Tabuu laughed and spread his hands, a bubble of different worlds appearing, "You do realize that by doing that, all of the forgotten warriors I've summoned will disappear. _Die_ to be frank. Right?"

G-Stone and SJ froze and lowered their swords slightly, "I have been playing way to much Fire Emblem," G-Stone grumbled as Tabuu laughed at their expressions, "So go ahead! Beat me to a pulp! Just know that you'll be the last thing those poor soldiers remember!"

"Maybe we could come to a compromise?" G-Stone suggested, "I mean, you've clearly changed. Sort of since I still wanna pound your face in."

"Don't worry, I feel the same." Tabuu blinked then screamed in pain as something behind him sent him crashing back on the platform, "Hello." Master Core greeted, his eyes a mix of murderous colors, "I'm breaking the rules."

"Really, a Master breaking the rules." Tabuu wheezed pushing himself up to send a mocking glare at Master Core, "I never would have expected that."

Master Core frowned and said, "Don't test me, I'm already in a bad mood."

"Really? So am I." he stood up and dusted off his clothes momentarily forgetting about G-Stone and SJ who had placed themselves near the other side of the stage, "And when I'm in a bad mood, I tend to take it out on everyone!" Tabuu snapped, he raised his arms and laughed as everything started to decode, "Wh- what are you doing?!" Master Core demanded as the stage lost floating moment and started to sink.

"Winning!" Tabuu yelled, "By deleting everything and everyone!"

"Including your teammates!?" SJ questioned.

"Eh, I can recreate them later." Tabuu deadpanned happily enjoying the floating numbers disappearing and destroying everything, Master Core jumped into the air as the platform underneath him dissolved, "I suppose a deal would be pointless at the moment?" Master Core asked.

"What kind of deal?" Tabuu questioned, Master Core straightened slightly and summoned a Smash Ball tossing it to Tabuu who briefly studied it before lowering it.

"Interesting proposal." Tabuu said, "What did it say?" G-Stone asked she earned no answer as the world faded too white, "Fine, I suppose I can put the interests of those saps before my own. I accept."

"Accept what?! We wanna know!" G-Stone yelled as the world around her faded. "…Game…over?" SJ asked as the white world was quickly replaced with pitch darkness.


	16. Chapter 16, The End

White, white as far as the eye could see. It was an odd place, yet not a place at the same time. For the heroes of Smash all they could see, feel and hear was emptiness. As if the world had ceased to exist.

"W…where are we?" a soft voice asked, as if afraid to speak any louder for fear of breaking the crystal quiet.

"Nowhere…" a voice full of importance and authority replied, "We're… nowhere." A silence fell over the white space before it was quickly broken once more saying, "I know what happened…"

A buzz of "You do?" and "What happened then?" filled the space before they allowed the once with the answer to speak, "Our world… Is gone, destroyed… Just like the Sammer Kingdom."

"Wha!? Say it ain't so bro!" a cowardly yet brotherly voice yelled, a low growl of disbelief followed by a princess like gasp followed before someone yelped, "Look! Something in the distance!" earning a witty, "Where? There's nothing but white space."

"No wait!... I see it too." And low and behold, a distorted outline of a small boy appeared in the space of nothingness, it looked around before sitting down, as if accepting their fate.

"…Hey… Do you know where we are?" the boy looked up trying to find the speaker before giving up and quietly answering, "We're deleted, merely bits of left over data floating in a blank void."

"…Can we do anything? To come back?"

"It depends…" the boy said, now able to see the faint outline of the speaker, who wore a robe and held a book in their hand, "The only people that aren't deleted… Are the Masters…"

"What?! That's impossible! We're right here!" someone, Master Hand, argued their silloute appeared, contrasting the white space with a dark splotch.

"Does… This mean no more destroying?" a manic yet timid voice asked, sounding afraid of the answer. Before anyone could answer they invisible beings and faint outlines felt a rush of wind past them followed by faint specks of color and numbers.

Startled, the beings watched as platforms appeared beneath their feet followed by color and then a faint of cheering, "Pretty…." A young childr breathed as familiar landscape rebuilt itself and stretched around the invisible beings.

Before anyone else could comment, a faint pop was heard then a rush of warm light blinded them bringing forth new adventures and upcoming battles…

* * *

Memories, were a fickle thing Owl deiced as he painted a blank wall a warm cream yellow, one moment you could remember everything, then the next. You've forgotten everything. Or worse, you had huge chunks taken out of your memory leaving you with confusing dead ends.

For Owl, he had huge chunks taken out of his memory, only remembering an attack lead by… a person with the letter T and fighting rouge forgotten characters before being turned into a puppet, now here he was, painting a newly built wall with Lucina, Greninja and Sheik who was oddly wearing a new outfit.

"Finished." Lucina said, stepping back to admire their handy work, Greninja sighed in relief and lowered his webbed hand, "I never would have expected a single wall to take nearly two hours."

"Well, that was because we had little trouble makers." Owl said, playfully glaring at four paint covered Pichus who were happily leaving footprints on the stone floor, "Huh?" Pirate questioned, "It wasn't us! It was them!" pointing to Geno and Mallow who were helping push a table in the middle of the new lounge area.

"Rigghhht, so Mallow magically tipped the buckets over just so we would have to get new ones." Sheik teased, Adventure looked up and defiantly chirped, "Yes!" Sheik shook her head while Owl looked around the room, everyone was working on something, Megaman, Samus, Zero and the Ice Climbers who were suddenly tech experts were working on the lighting while the Villagers happily used their profound strength to help decorate the main bulk of the room.

Owl could help but laugh as Shulk, Captain Falcon and Bowser watched with dumbfound expressions at how easily Treeleaf was pushing around a working water fountain.

"Well, at least we're nearly done with this." Owl said, "I wonder how Phoenix's group is doing." Sky snickered and muttered, "Probably ready to murder Scourge and Sonic at this point."

Lucina sighed and folded her arms, "Can't blame them… it's so weird… one moment we're fighting and now we're rebuilding a new area of the living quarters."

"Indeed, it is quite strange." Greninja noted, "Then again, all I remember was getting attacked." Shulk frowned trying to remember how attacked Greninja when someone crashed into him, or rather some Pokémon.

"Sansca! You can't roll all over the place!" Leaf scolded, the Sandshrew uncurled and gave her trainer a look of disbelief, "I'm sorry! She got excited about meeting all the new Pokemon here." Leaf apologized helping Shulk to his feet, "It's alright, I've face worse." Shulk joked as Sansca curled back into a ball and started to roll around Greninja who wearily studied it.

"Speaking of excited," Lucina started, "How's Drawcia?" Leaf laughed nervously and glanced at Drawcia who was directing the Koopa kids in painting a mural, "It's half and half for her." Leaf said as Drawcia angrily hopped up and in down in front of Bowser Jr. in an attempt to stop him from painting over a flower she drew.

"I thought she was enjoying herself." Pichu said, "Since I saw her throw Dark Pit around before he chased after her."

"That was probably before she had to work with the Koopalings." Greninja noted, "I'm surprise she hasn't attacked them already." Lucina said. Owl nodded in agreement and walked toward the park entrance, "I'm going to see how the others are doing."

"Kay! We're going to paint Wario purple!" Sky chirped giving Wario an evil little smile. Shulk laughed and sent Wario a sympathetic look as he worked with Wolf, Falco and Fox on painting a sign.

"Looks slightly better." Owl muttered as he noticed new plants growing on the ruins of the old park. Tabuu's Subspace bomb had royally messed things up, the library was now a home for ivy and random birds while the playground equipment was a rainbow of colors thanks to Drawcia's art.

He spotted Phoenix and her group replanting trees and waved hello, earning a cheerful, "Hello!" from the Deki and Kirby who were planting flowers, "How's it going so far?" Owl asked, Phoenix looked up and stretched, "A lot better than before now that Toon and his friends are helping." She said, gesturing to Vio, Blue, Red, Shadow and Toon where were talking while planting bushes.

"And Vaati? I heard he was with Scourge."

Phoenix muffled a giggle and pointed to the fountain where Scourge was arguing with Sonic while Fiona teased Vaati, who looked ready to send everyone flying in a couple seconds.

"Should I dare ask about what their arguing about?" Owl asked, Phoenix was about to say no when Vaati yelled, "Who cares about who won what battle!" summoning a gust of wind to knock the Sega characters into the fountain, Sonic came up spluttering while Scourge retorted, "We do! Since I totally won that!"

"He has a point." Fiona said, a coy smile forming as Sonic snapped, "Yea right Scourge! It was a draw and you know it!" Scourge ignored Sonic and climbed out the fountain saying, "Besides, everyone knows that you're just grumpy over the fact that Toon beat you without breaking a sweat!"

"No he didn't!" Vaati snapped while Toon yelled, "Yes I did!" earning a stern glare from the Wind Mage.

"Aw! You bruised Vaati's ego!" Shadow teased earning a playful glare from Vio before he resumed planting his bush, "At least I wasn't brainwashed!" Vaati snapped.

"And with that, I'm going back to cleaning up fallen branches." Sonic said, sensing the oncoming tornado that Vaati was about to unleash, "Chicken!" Scourge yelled while Fiona gently grabbed his arm and lead him to the other side saying, "Maybe we should get out of the way."

"Why is Vaati so angry pi?" Deki asked, Kirby frowned and nodded in agreement.

"I think it's because he's a sourpuss." Tie-Dye offered, Chibi and 6-Ball laughed before they resumed planting flowers.

"Hey, has anyone seen Master Hand?" Zelda asked, dusting off her gardening gloves, "Or rather, any Master?" Owl thought for a bit before shaking his head no.

"Oh, they all went to Tabuu's palace to fix something." Lucas answered, Claus nodded in agreement and stood up, "Yea, Tabuu mentioned having a special job for Crazy Hand and Master Core dragged Master Hand to along to see what it was."

"Why do you ask Zelda?" Owl questioned, Zelda hesitated before saying, "I just want to know why everyone was in that white space, and what happened afterwards since everyone woke up with a blurry memory of what happened."

Phoenix frowned as she recalled the vast space of nothingness, "It was odd… But I'd rather forget about it then dwell on a problem which did nothing."

"I guess…" Zelda murmured although she still looked concerned. Owl sighed and placed a thoughtful hand on Zelda's shoulder, "Come on, let's focus on repairing the park before creating more theories of what happened."

* * *

"Yay! Destruction!" Crazy Hand cheered as he gleefully blew up the rest of Tabuu's palace, Master Hand gave him a reprimanding glare but didn't say anything, which was probably a good thing since Crazy Hand planned to blow him up if he tried to control his wonderful art known as destruction.

Tabuu sighed and watched his palace turn to rubble before yelling, "Alright! You can stop Crazy Hand!"

"Already?! But I haven't blown up the control room!" Crazy Hand argued, Master Core sighed and looked up from a set of blueprints, "Crazy Hand, you're done." Crazy Hand pouted but lowered his hands and sulked toward them.

"Alright, now we can start redesigning the main room now that we have more space." Tabuu said, happily creating holograms of what he wanted Master Hand sighed and abruptly stood up, "Right, while you do that. I'm going to see how the rebuilding is and if the Miis are back from Tomodachii."

Master Core silently watched before he too followed Master Hand. Leaving Crazy Hand alone with Tabuu who was happily adding and removing furniture.

"Hey… Tabuu?" Tabuu didn't even look up as he guessed, "You want me to conform if Master Hand really worked with me?"

"No," Crazy Hand said sounding bitter, "I wanted to know why the world turned white."

"Oh, that." Tabuu said, he looked up and sat down in a chair, gesturing for Crazy Hand to do the same, "The world turned white because I was in the process of deleting it, I guess the installment went a lot faster on the lower levels than where I was."

"So you basically won?"

"No, since Master Core struck a deal with me."

Crazy Hand frowned and played with his long sleeves, "What kind of deal?"

"A basic agreement, if I stopped attacking the world of Smash and reserve the corrupted data then he would allow my army of Forgotten to become participates of the Smash world."

"And you agreed?"

"Of course! Since I'm a forgotten as well, I can easily appear in your little area and bug people." Tabuu boasted, then he quietly added with a faint blush of embarrassment, "Plus I didn't really want to delete my army since they were a lot better than those Brawl paws…."

"Aw! You like them!" Crazy Hand giggled, Tabuu glared at him and hissed, "Tell them about this and I'll block your ability to summon explosions."

Crazy Hand gasped and clutched his left hand earning a triumphant, "That's what I thought." From Tabuu, "Now, any other questions?"

"Err…. Why did you want my help to blow up stuff?" Crazy Hand said, surprising Tabuu a little as he thoughtfully pointed out, "I mean, you can already destroy and create things without anyone's help. So… Why did you need me?"

"Huh… So you _are_ smart when you want to be." Tabuu said with a small chuckle, Crazy Hand glowered at him and slumped in his chair. He probably shut his mouth since Tabuu was just as much a control freak as Master Hand was.

"Alright, I asked for your help to say sorry."

"Huh?"

Tabuu rolled his eyes and waved his hand, "I saw what you were capable of in Brawl before I started the invasion but I saw you're insane and destructive manner too hard to control in case you turned against me. So when Master Hand mention you I merely shut him down, saying that we should save you for a backup plan since we merely meant to rebuild upon land."

"So… Me being crazy got me locked in a closet?" Crazy Hand questioned sounding hurt.

"Yes and no." Tabuu replied, "You being crazy protected you from being a puppet like Master Hand plus, at the time I viewed you as a viable threat to my plans if I did try to control you."

"How am I a threat?"

"How were you one of the hardest characters to beat in Melee?" Tabuu countered, "Simple, since you act upon your greatest desires are your programming to be the polar opposite of Master Hand you don't like to hold back when fighting. Making you a challenging foe."

Crazy Hand perked up and grinned as he recalled how many people he sent flying off the stage with his wild attacks. It had been fun! But it soon lost its fun since he rarely got to fight one on one with anyone anymore…

"Oh cheer up." Tabuu said sensing Crazy Hand's disappointment at having his power de-buffed, "At least you're still a boss character!"

"Yea… But I can't make people panic anymore!" Crazy Hand whined, Tabuu groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, "You still can Mr. I like to jump in—,"

"Look a hole!" Crazy Hand yelled shooting to his feet and knocking the small coffee table over to point it out, "Ack! See!? You don't think before you act!" Tabuu snapped as Crazy Hand gleefully ran over to it to hopefully make it bigger.

"Manic." Tabuu grumbled but he couldn't help but laugh as Crazy Hand promptly fell over and into the hole screaming gibberish.

Tabuu waited for a bit before he shrugged and went to redesign his palace, after all. His comrades would need somewhere to rest once they were done helping Master Hand's crew.

The End

* * *

 **And thus, the longest story I have even written, has ended. With a hopefully (Not to cheesy) ending XD**


End file.
